Loud Powers: Rise of Locus
by the Tormentor
Summary: The Louds have always been a crazy, lovable family. Yet one day fate gives them something more; superpowers! But why? Who lurks in space, watching their every move? The Louds must now go beyond the stars on a galactic adventure to solve their greatest challenge yet, uncovering the terrible secret about their powers and the ancient foe behind it all. (Artwork by me). Title edit.
1. Prologue

**Hello dear reader. I am the Tormentor, bringing forth a new story.**

 **I'd like to give a huge shoutout to Cryandia, allanarcher777, Neet92 and the legend himself Smoking Wrecker for inspiring me to write this. Their amazing stories ultimately pushed me to make my own super-Loud story with my own special twist on things. I really hope you enjoy reading this.**

* * *

 ** _the Tormentor presents..._**

 _LOUD HEROES:_

 ** _RISE OF LOCUS_**

Prologue

Midnight over Royal Woods, Michigan. The suburban sprawl lay dormant underneath a blanket of stars, all of them out-shined by the crescent moon. On one street, in one house, a peculiar family of thirteen slumbered away. With eleven children, life in this house was nothing short of chaotic. Messy experiments, dates gone wrong, more fights over the TV remote than a New York boxing ring. But for single white-haired boy and his ten sisters, this crazy house was home, and they wouldn't trade it for the world.

Who would have thought that it would only get _more_ chaotic?

If anyone had been awake at this time of night, they would have noticed one of the stars in the sky start to grow, flickering like a candle in the wind. Suddenly the star became a hurtling rock, _an asteroid,_ hurtling through the atmosphere straight to the surface of the planet, yet it couldn't have been more than a foot long. At incredible speeds it tore through the air and crashed straight into the local park. Not with a colossal explosion as one might have imagined like the one that sent the dinosaurs packing, but rather more of someone tossing a stone into a sandpit.

It had gone completely unnoticed on Earth.

 _Yet in the darkest depths of space, millions of lightyears away, someone was watching. Watching as their plan unfolded as it had done many times before. For now, they would wait and see the results. A screen displayed the impact before them, and a single silver claw pressed a holographic button, shutting the screen off._

 _Meanwhile back on Earth the crashed object, revealed to be a small chrome ball covered in red circles, scanned the nearby area for suitable hosts. After searching it found one particular family, one with eleven children. With its target chosen it opened up the multiple dimly-lit blood red circles across its frame, releasing a tiny swarm of gnat-sized machines, so small they were basically invisible. In time they reached their destination, slipping through the cracks and windows with ease._

 _The children slumbered, unaware of what was going on. Each machine chose an individual, setting down on their necks, wrists or any other exposed piece of skin. One by one the invaders painlessly injected their payload into them, plunging their microscopic barbs into their bloodstreams. Their mission accomplished they swiftly returned to the crash site. The chrome ball sent out one final message into the empty sky above before self-destructing in a shower of sparks, leaving no trace._

 _The cycle had begun._


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Familial Setting

The sun peeked over the horizon above the town of Royal Woods, Michigan. A rooster gave its morning call from a nearby farm, signalling the start of a new day. For the Loud family it was the start to a normal Saturday morning, and by normal, that meant chaos. But chaos was normal for them with eleven siblings under one roof. Each of their personalities fit a specific role in the house's dynamic. Though their family was as peculiar as any could be, life in their crazy home was something they had come to accept as their own form of being a normal family.

"Kids, come on down!" The voice of their father yelled up the stairs, "Breakfast is ready! I made my signature _Lynn-tastic_ omelets!"

At the sound of Lynn Sr. announcing his delicious meals, eleven pajama-clad kids practically bum-rushed out of their rooms, racing down the stairs to get to their respective seats to dig in. Their father's specially made omelets were second to none, and he even made sure to make each one to their liking, complete with their favorite cheeses, meats and veggies. In tandem they took to their chairs with their omelets handed to them by their father. The eldest sat at the grown-up table while the youngest five sat at the kiddie table, taking their meals with them.

"Now kids, what do you say?" Their mother asked.

"Thanks dad!" They cheered at once and began to eat. After a little while the matriarch of the Loud family spoke up.

"So, what are we all doing today?" Rita Loud asked as she sat down with her tofu omelet and kicking off a conversation, "I know it's a Saturday and you kids are aching to get out there!"

"Oh, the mall's having a superb deal on their old clothes at Lord and Taylor today!" Leni was the first one to speak up. The ditsy shopaholic sounded very excited for what was happening at her favorite place, "Fifty percent off all clearance items! It's _totes_ amazing!"

"Good for you honey, I'm sure Lori will take you over this afternoon, right Lori?" Rita asked her eldest daughter, who rolled her eyes.

"Whatever, me and Bobby were literally gonna hang out at the mall anyway, so I might as well take you too." Lori brushed it off, more concerned with finishing her breakfast than talking. Leni looked at her sibling with happy eyes, as if she had just told her something spectacular.

"Like, thanks Lori! You're the best!"

"I know."

Meanwhile at the kiddie table, the youngest of the Loud siblings were chowing down. Rather than talk about anything related to shopping or dating, something else was going on. As they ate, they noticed that a certain red-capped sister of their's was eating her omelet at a rather abnormally pace. Lana was devouring her breakfast so fast that food bits was starting to scatter around the table where she sat. Lincoln and Lola, who were sitting on either side of her, watched as their sister inhaled the omelet.

"Jeez Lana, show a little class!" Lola shouted and backed away from her twin, who was scarfing down her food with vigor. She'd ditched her fork for her hands and soon enough the sausage, onion and swiss cheese omelet she had on her plate not one moment ago was gone. Lana even started to lick her plate like a dog. Satisfied that she had eaten well, Lana let out a loud belch that got the attention of the adult table.

"Ha! Nice one, Lana!" Lynn gave a thumbs up.

"Whew, that was good!" Lana pat her stuffed belly and leaned back on her chair, "Thanks for the meal, dad! That hit the spot!"

"Anything for my little mechanic!" Lynn Sr. gushed out.

"Oh, speaking of mechanics," Lana shot up after she realized something, "I'll be working on Vanzilla today, Lori. You're gonna have to wait for me to fix her exhaust coupling and the accelerator before you head to the mall. Wouldn't want another fender bender again, right?"

"What are you talking about? I'm a good driver," Lori said back, and her siblings responded with deadpan expressions, "Okay, so I have a lead foot! So what? Time is of the essence here people! Don't any of you have literally any sense of urgency?"

"Fear not sis, it's not because you _drive_ us crazy," Luan quipped, and Lori responded with a fierce glare and clenched teeth, "It's because you _car-en't_ a safe driver, hahaha! Get it?" The rest of her siblings groaned at her puns, except for her dad who was giggling the whole time.

"Oh don't worry, I get it," Lori quietly seethed, imagining just for once taking her fist to Luan's stupid smirk without getting into trouble. Oh what a sight.

"The _Muscle Fish v. Ace Savvy_ movie came out this weekend," Lincoln said as hyped as can be to see his favorite comic book heroes and villains finally make it to the big screen, and just in time for him and his friends to see. "I'm gonna see it with Clyde and the guys tonight. It's going be awesome!" Lincoln exclaimed with finger horns up in the air.

"Pft, what a nerd," Lola sniggered, Lana joining her. Lincoln gave the twins a glare.

"Well this nerd is gonna see the number one movie in America tonight, so I'm feeling good Lola. Sorry, it's rated PG. You're gonna have to wait until you're older to see it," Lincoln teased, pointing a fork at his little sister who returned a glare.

"Ugh, who'd want to see some dumb superhero movie anyway? They all have the same stupid story about good guys and bad guys," Lola rolled her eyes, "I mean, what do they even do? What's their superpower, flying around and looking ugly?" She asked. Lola was not a fan of caped crusaders or any other things that were too boyish for her. She'd stick with princess movies, thank you.

"Y'know Lola, I'd bet you there's some superheroes that you'd like!" Lincoln argued, which instantly got everyone else's attention. The solo son of the Loud family was a major fan of comic book superheroes, and what they all knew about superheroes is what made them _super_ in the first place; their powers. From flying to shapeshifting to magic abilities there was an endless smorgasbord of superpowers in the world of comic books. Lincoln read them all, never once taking a side as to which comic industry was better. He'd read and enjoy them as any real comic book fan would do.

"Oh yeah?" Lola scoffed, "Name one."

"Well," Lincoln scratched the back of his head, "there's the Star Sapphires. They're like pink Green Lanterns."

Instantly catching on with the mention of a pink hero, Lola asked, "Alright, I'm interested. What do they do?"

"Well, all of them are girls, just like you. Like the Green Lanterns, the Star Sapphires use a power ring," Lincoln gestured towards his middle finger where the ring would be, "And while the Green Lanterns use the emotional power of will, the Sapphires use the power of love."

"The power of _love?_ Really?" Lola said incredulously, wondering if Lincoln was just pulling her leg. As stated before, Lola never really read any comic books, so she was taking everything that her brother told her as the truth. But the power of love? That sounded silly.

"Yep! They make constructs made of pink light with their rings to battle their enemies across the universe," Lincoln said to her, "And it's not just pink and green, Lola. All the colors of the emotional spectrum are used, like a rainbow."

"Aren't there other Lantern colors as well, like red and blue?" Lana asked, getting in on the conversation.

"Yep, there's the Red Lanterns, they're powered by rage. And the Blue Lanterns, who use hope as their power." Lincoln said back, really having fun telling his younger siblings about all his comic book knowledge. "Ace Savvy had a crossover many years ago with the Green Lanterns when a bad guy stole a Lantern ring. It came out when mom and dad were kids."

"I read that comic, son!" Lynn Sr. said, overhearing his son talking about old comics, "Ah, _Ace Savvy and the Lantern Strike._ Now that was a timeless classic. I read that all the time when I was your age, back when comic books were considered to be bad for us kids, part of my _rebellious_ age."

"Oh stop it Lynn, you were never rebellious in the first place," Rita playfully admonished her husband.

"But I still read that comic, and I enjoyed it very much."

"Well, my favorites are the Black Lanterns," Lucy said, surprising everyone since she usually never really talked about any literature besides her poetry, "I read one of their editions thanks to Lincoln's comic books. The rings are worn by the undead, and their leader is the grim reaper. Plus black is my favorite color. _Sigh,_ if only I could have a ring that would raise me an army of vengeful ghouls. That'd be _killer_."

"Uh huh," Lincoln said slowly. One, he wasn't really surprised that the Black Lanterns would be Lucy's favorite, considering the little goth liked all things dark and dreary. Two, the thing he was indeed quite surprised about was that Lucy had read some of his comic books. He also noticed that a certain scientific toddler was keeping to herself the whole time, munching down on her omelet, having not said a word since the whole superpower conversation started.

"You haven't said anything Lisa," Lincoln said, getting the attention of his little sister, "Not a fan of superpowers?"

"You mean the inane science-fiction fantasy elements? No thank you, I'd like to base myself on real, actual things that occur in the world of reality," Lisa responded.

"Lisa's too _smart_ for comic books," Lana smirked at her younger sister, "Don't want those colored pictures to lower her brain power, right Lis?"

"It's not that I don't enjoy comic books," Lisa argued, putting down her boot and her fork, "They just don't tickle my fancy. There are other forms of literature that enjoy more than simple panels on pages, such as novels and textbooks." She explained to her siblings. While Lisa might not be a fan of comic books and superheroes, she could understand why they were so popular. Audiences, Lincoln included, liked reading stories that detail human abilities far beyond their own, hence the name _superpowers._

"But if you had a superpower, what would it be?" Lucy asked. "I'd imagine telekinesis or telepathy would be up your alleyway."

"Yeah! Something to do with that big brain of your's, right?" Lola said, pointing at her sister's head like she could see the organ inside.

"Actually," Lisa said, punctuating her point by raising a finger, "the most useful abnormal human ability, street name superpower, that would find to be my favorite would be the ability to view various molecular objects too small to see with the naked eye." She finished, and noticed that her siblings were giving her confused looks. Once again her impressive vernacular leaves them clueless.

She pinched the bridge of her nose, "Oh for... microscopic vision you nimrods." Lisa clarified, "So I can see things without using an electron microscope and help my research."

Her sisters and brother let out an "Ooh," as she returned to finishing her breakfast.

"I'd turn into animals! Like Beast Boy!" Lana practically jumped into her part of the conversation, slamming down her hands on the table and making her plate bounce. She seemed pretty excited to talk about her favorite superpower, "I'd finally be able to live out my dream and be a lizard!"

Lily let out an adorable "RAWR!", putting her hands up like tiger claws.

"Simple things for simple minds I suppose," Lisa muttered.

"There are other heroes that can turn into animals, Lana, like Miss Martian and Vixen," Lincoln added, getting the animal lover's attention, "Plus one of them's an alien."

"That's so cool!" Lana gushed out, starry-eyed. "Tell me more!"

Over at the other table, Luna watched as her younger sisters and brother conversed with each other on the topic of their favorite superpower. For the rocker it was honestly heartwarming to see them so talkative among each other, even Lisa and Lucy were getting interested in what their brother was talking about. Luna noticed that her table might have gone quiet, but they too were hearing what the kiddie table was talking about.

"Could you imagine all of us having superpowers, dudes?" Luna asked. Luan and Leni smiled while Lori rolled her eyes.

"That's literally giving me a headache just thinking about it," Lori said, woefully imagining all of her younger siblings having various superhuman abilities, running around the house causing chaos, and more importantly, not listening to her. She shuddered at the thought.

"Are you kidding me? I'd love to have superpowers!" Lynn exclaimed, jubilant as can be, "My favorites? Definitely super strength AND super speed. With those two powers I'd be the greatest sports player in the world!"

"Invisibility is this comedian's favorite," Luan said, putting in her two cents by pointing to herself, "It's such a simple yet devious power. You know how easy it would be for me to prank people? They wouldn't even _see_ me coming, ha ha ha! Get it?"

"As for me dudes, I'd take anything related to music," Luna admitted, "Maybe a supersonic scream to get me on that high note."

"I would _totes_ have a cute power, maybe even one that would help me style my dresses," Leni pondered, "Like, something to do with fashion!"

"This conversation is literally stupid," Lori grumbled out, finished with her omelet and texting on her smartphone.

"Aw c'mon Lori, don't be a stick in the mud!" Luan argued, nudging her older sister with an elbow, "I bet there's some superpower you dreamed of having when you were Link's age."

"Yeah, like superfast texting," Lynn giggled, "So she can keep in touch with Boo-Boo Bear!" She puckered up her lips, making smooching noises as she did. The rest of her siblings had a laugh at that, except for Lori of course, who was steaming in her seat. The father and mother of the Loud children enjoyed the morning show of their children making talk with each other on such a silly topic, and for them it was just too pure.

"Life would certainly be interesting with ten super-kids, right honey?" Lynn Sr. said to his wife.

"Interesting indeed, Lynn."

...

The day had turned to the afternoon, the sun now at its highest peak. The house had been gifted the sweet sound of silence for the time being, since half the kids were either gone to do whatever chores they needed to do or stores they had to visit. Lori and Leni had gone to the mall as they had discussed earlier after Lana had taken care of Vanzilla's mechanical issues. Luna had gone off to practice with her band at the house of one of her band friends, who just so happened to be Sam Sharp, Luna's secret crush. Luan was at a birthday party, being the main attraction, and Lynn was at the ball park hitting it up with her team.

That just left Lincoln and his younger siblings: Lucy, the twins, Lisa and Lily.

And speaking of Lincoln, the boy had dug through the cardboard boxes he kept underneath his bed. In them lay his extensive comic collection from every brand he could find in Royal Woods. He'd recently beaten some levels in _Super Mario Odyssey_ and was ready to take a break rereading some of his older comic books. Before he could strip himself out of his undies and begin to dive into the adventure, he heard his phone go off.

A quick look at the screen revealed who was calling.

"Hey Clyde," Lincoln said, answering though speaker.

"'Sup Lincoln, are you ready for the _Muscle Fish v. Ace Savvy_ movie tonight?" Clyde excitedly asked his best friend, "Rusty, Liam and Zack just arrived at my house and we're loading up snacks to sneak in." Lincoln had done his fair share of bringing food into movie theaters to avoid having to pay for ridiculously overpriced candy. Naturally Clyde and the rest of his friends would do the same thing.

"I brought my big coat!" Lincoln heard Rusty say.

Clyde continued talking, "You wanna stop on by and play some _Super Smash Bros. Ultimate_ with us before we head out to see the movie? Zack brought his adapter and some spare controllers." Clyde said. Lincoln knew that he couldn't deny his friend's invitation to a game of Smash.

"I'll be there in five!" He said and hung up, grabbing his shoes and coat as he ran out of his room. "Mom, dad, I'm heading over to Clyde's!"

"I left some cash for you on the table, honey!" Lincoln heard his mom say back, noticing a twenty dollar bill on the end table near the front door, "I know you boys are gonna be out all night, so please be careful!"

"Have fun, son!"

"We will! See ya!" Lincoln snagged the twenty and stuffed it in his pocket. He hopped on his bike and took off towards Clyde's house. As he made his way across sidewalks and streets to his friend's abode, Lincoln could feel the excitement pumping in his veins to see the movie with his buddies. It would be another day of him and his friends having another get-together, and he felt like nothing in the world could change that.

 _If only he knew..._


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter II: Abnormalities

"Bro, that movie was _awesome!_ " Rusty shouted to the skies above, spilling some of his leftover popcorn. The five friends had just left the theater after seeing the movie, and they were feeling the rush. So much action, story, and plot twists they never saw coming, it brought what each of them wanted to see in a highly anticipated crossover movie that they never thought they'd see in their lifetimes. More people funneled out of the theater as the credits rolled, the boys being some of the last to leave.

The afternoon sun had turned to the night sky, a testament to just how long the crossover movie was. For them, it might as well have been too short.

"You ain't lyin' there, Rusty! That space chase scene gave me goosebumps!" Liam said as he shuddered.

"Did you see Lincoln's face during that? I'd thought his eyes would pop out!" Zack laughed, slapping the white haired boy's back.

"Duh, could you blame me? Seeing my favorite characters going all out fighting each other, that was the best movie I've ever seen!" Lincoln excitedly said, remembering what Zack was talking about. It was the climactic first battle between the heroes and the villains in a brutal warzone inside an asteroid belt that brought Lincoln, his friends, and pretty much everyone else in the theater to the edge of their seats. For action junkies like the five boys it was total fanservice galore. They'd be talking about this movie for _weeks_ at school and at home, probably until it came out on DVD and Blu-ray. Then they could watch it over and over again as much as they wanted to.

The small group walked and chatted as they made their way to their bikes, locked up to a chain link fence near a lamppost.

"So what are you guys doing tomorrow?" Rusty asked, unlocking his bike and getting ready to head home. It was nearly eleven at night and they were all feeling a little tired from all the excitement that happened today. "Anyone up for some _Super Mario Party_?"

The guys all cheered for another hour of fun, but Lincoln knew better.

"Sorry guys, I don't think I can," Lincoln somberly said, making his friends all groan. "It's Sunday tomorrow, that means Chore Day."

Rusty visibly cringed, "Can we get a big yikes for Lincoln here? Poor guy has to do chores for the family."

"And you've got ten sisters!" Liam pointed out as he strapped on his helmet, "I wonder how much junk they gotta toss every week. Cleanup's gotta be brutal."

"Yeah, don't remind me," Lincoln said as he hopped on his bike, "I've got to get home or else Lori will have my butt if I accidentally sleep in on Chore Day. See you tomorrow!"

"Bye Lincoln, and tell Lori I said hi!" Clyde waved his farewells as he and the rest of the friends went one way and Lincoln went the other. It had gotten pretty dark as Lincoln biked his way though the neighborhood. The orange-yellow streetlights illuminated the sidewalks, and very few cars were on the road, giving the white-haired boy a safe trail back home. When he turned the corner towards his house, he saw that the lights were on and Vanzilla was parked in the driveway. Either someone was staying up to wait for him to arrive home, or his family was having another late-night fiesta.

As he locked up his bike in the garage and headed for the back door, he could hear people talking. From the distance and pitched voices, it sounded like some of his older sisters were still up. His younger ones must have already retired to bed. Lincoln entered his home, just in time to hear a commotion going on in the living room. Lynn was there, along with Lori and Lisa, which surprised Lincoln since the little scientist was definitely not someone who stayed up late at night often.

They kept on talking, either ignoring or haven't heard their brother making his entrance.

"So let me get this straight," Lori's voice cut through the air with a commanding tone, "You said that while you and your friends were practicing some baseball at the park you literally straight up _melted_ your metal bat? That's impossible, Lynn."

"I'm not kidding Lori! It just went _pbbblt!_ right in my hands!" Lynn argued back, sounding very desperate. She jut out her hands for extra emphasis too. "I was practicing for my home-run swing for the big game this Friday and then all of sudden it goes all jello-like!"

"Hey guys, what's going on?" Lincoln asked as he entered the room, getting the attention of his sisters, "Lynn melted a bat?"

"Uh, yeah! My lucky bat!" Lynn said to her brother. "And nobody here believes me!"

"That's because the melting point of the object of which you speak about, which is made of aluminum, is approximately 1,221 degrees Fahrenheit, or 660 degrees Celsius," Lisa explained to Lynn, pushing up her glasses as she talked, "The average human body temperature is only a mere 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, or 27 degrees Celsius. To claim that you melted it by yourself is ludicrous at best. Unless you have proof."

"Oh yeah? Here's your proof!" Lynn reached down to the duffel bag at her feet and brought out the main subject of her ire: her bat. Or what used to be her bat, it was so horribly warped it looked like someone had stuck a handle to a slab of metal lathered with burnt plastic wrapping. Everyone stared at it with wide, shocked eyes. Lynn had been telling the truth after all.

"Oh my." Lisa said, taking the bat in her hands as she closely inspected it, "That is, eh-hem, quite strange."

"Alright Lynn, you melted it. Mind telling us how this happened?" Lori pressed on, trying to figure out what was going on with her little sister.

"Uh, Lori! Hello! Remember when I said that I don't know?" Lynn sarcastically answered back, "Still don't! All I can think of was how I suddenly felt like I was on fire. Like I got a heat stroke or something." She pressed her hand to her forehead, leaning back to try and alleviate her frustration. At the same time Lori pinched the bridge of her nose letting out a gust from her nose.

"A heat stroke? Lynn, that makes no sense!"

As they resumed their arguing, Lincoln suddenly felt the pieces start to connect. All this talk about how strange it was for Lynn to suddenly cause an aluminum bat, something very strong and made to hit hard, was starting to jog his memory. Normally this was cause for some sort of alarm, but for the boy it was something else. The talk that they had earlier at breakfast, about their favorite superpowers.

 _Could it be coming true?_

Lincoln understood that what he was theoretically thinking of bordered on the edge of crazy. Superpowers were the stuff of comic books and CGI-animated movies, not real life. But something told Lincoln that this wasn't just a strange event that happened. Perhaps it was the movie's excitement getting to his head. He'd read enough comics to know when someone was developing powers, just like what Lynn was describing what had happened to her today.

Lynn had talked about how her favorites were the athletically-focused super strength and super speed, but she also had a temper, a fiery one at that. Plus her favorite foods were anything spicy, stuff that would make your tongue cry out. Lynn having fire or heat-related powers could make some sense. Before he could just announce that his older sister had spontaneously grown superpowers out of the blue and face endless ridicule he had to have some sort of proof. Not like the bat in Lisa's hands. He needed something a little more.

"Wait a second!" Lincoln shouted, getting their attention, "Lynn, you said that you melted the bat. When you were playing baseball, when did that happen?"

"When I felt like I was having a heat stroke. Why?" Lynn wondered what Lincoln was trying to get at this.

"Call it a hunch. Hey Lisa," He began, "Have you tried to take Lynn's temperature?"

The scientist suddenly looked like she'd been slapped, "I hadn't! Gosh, how foolish of me!" Lisa rushed upstairs to her room, dropping the bat as she did which Lynn put back in her duffel bag.

"What would taking my temperature prove?" Lynn pondered to Lincoln, who was internally hiding his growing excitement.

"Well you were talking about how you felt like you were burning up at one point. Maybe you're coming down with something." Lincoln replied. _Something like superpowers, as insane as that sounds._ Lisa returned with a thermometer in hand.

"Stick this underneath your tongue, Lynn," Lisa popped in the small device into her sister's mouth, "This will accurately record your temperatures that your body held for the day."

"The entire day?" Lori asked.

"Well, more akin to seven-to-eight hour periods. The human body's internal temperature is more than often very stable unless afflicted with colds, illnesses or worse," Lisa explained, noticing that Lynn's eyes had grown wide with with horror at her sister talking about disease. Lisa was quick to disperse her sister's feelings, "Don't worry Lynn, I doubt that anything serious has happened to you over the short span of a couple hours."

 _Beep!_

"Huh, that was quicker than expected." Lisa said, gently grabbing the device from Lynn's mouth and viewing the small holographic screen.

"Well? Anything weird?" Lincoln asked with a bit of a rush, standing on the balls of his feet.

"What's up with you?" Lori noticed that Lincoln was acting giddy for some reason.

"U-Um, uh," Lincoln sputtered after he was caught, but thankfully he was saved when Lisa decided to speak up.

"Your temperature readout is displaying normal levels, Lynn. This goes for every hour from approximately twelve-o'-clock to six in the afternoon, about the same time your baseball dilemma ended." Lisa explained, wiping the spit-covered part of the thermometer with a clean paper towel. Lynn gave a sigh of relief. No signs of anything harmful in her body, that was a good sign.

Lisa turned her attention back to the melted bat laying on the floor and picked it up, "Though this mystery still confounds me. I will look into this briefly tonight, but not completely. I will have answers tomorrow since it is getting late. As someone of my age, staying up this late is detrimental to my sleep schedule."

"Lisa's right," Lori said, "We should literally get some shuteye. It's nearly midnight."

"Yeah, but I got a question for Lincoln," Lynn hopped off the couch to face her brother, "Why were you acting so excited all of a sudden? Do you want me to get sick?"

"No! W-Well, I mean..." Lincoln rubbed the back of his head, feeling some sweat emanating from his skin as he flushed in embarrassment, "It's silly, really. Kinda stupid. Totally not worth getting into, no no! Heh heh..." He made a big, unassuming smile, trying to desperately cut the conversation down.

It didn't work.

"Right," Lynn raised an eyebrow, and so did her sisters. Lincoln was pretty bad at keeping a lie and it was clearly showing. He had something else on his mind, and now they were interested, "Just tell us what you're thinking Link. Now."

"Okay, fine," Lincoln slapped a hand on his forehead, mentally berating himself for being such a dork. He explained himself, preparing for the worst, "I-I thought that, y'know, since we had that conversation this morning, a-and you kind of turned your bat into a puddle, plus the whole heat thing, that you were getting a superpower."

Lynn didn't even bother reacting. Either it was too late and she was tired, or it was so expected of her comic book-loving brother that she wasn't surprised at all. Lori on the other hand burst out laughing and Lisa simply made a frown.

"Superpowers? Really Lincoln?" Lynn pressed with a high amount of sarcasm, "Those movies are messing up your brain dude."

" _Hahaha!_ Oh Lincoln, you silly goose," Lori finished laughing and rubbed Lincoln's snow white hair, "Was that why you were acting so excited about? You thought Lynn was growing superpowers? That's literally the funniest thing I've heard all day."

"Perhaps you should take a break from intense science fiction fantasies, elder brother," Lisa said, "Or maybe you're just tired. Either way, now would be a good time to head to sleep."

"Same," Lori stretched out her back with a yawn, grabbing both Lynn's and Lincoln's shoulders as she ushered them up the stairs with Lisa closely behind them, "C'mon comic boy and power girl, time for bed."

"Ain't Power Girl an actual character?" Lynn asked.

"Yeah, she's the Supergirl of Earth-3. She's also kind of like Superman, plus she's also got the _biggest_ -"

"Go to bed, Lincoln."

...

As the night continued, the house had finally settled into a slumber. The hallways were as quiet as can be, except for the occasional snore coming from one of the rooms. Yet Lynn Loud felt no such rest. Ever since she had put on her pajamas and wished her brother and sisters a good night, she had been tossing and turning in her bed. She hadn't caught a single wink of sleep, and she was getting frustrated. Her body felt like a furnace, and the cool temperature of the room wasn't helping her at all. Right now all she wanted to do was catch some z's but this nightly hot-flash that she was getting prevented her from doing so.

"This is stupid," Lynn growled, as quiet as she could to not wake Lucy from inside her coffin. Right now she'd discarded her blankets to try and sleep in the open, but that still hadn't worked. She hopped off her bed, wiping away the sweat from her cheeks. As quietly as possible she tip-toed to the bathroom, not wanting to grab attention. Thankfully the coast was clear and she made it inside, locking the door.

Lynn twisted the cold handle on the sink as far as it could go, letting the bowl fill up before she splashed her face with ice-cold water. Still this damnable heat would not go away. It was like she was burning up, but she didn't have a fever as far as she knew. Lisa had made sure, right?

Her mind brought back to what Lincoln had blabbered about not too long ago. Sure, she loved her brother with all of her hard heart, but sometimes he could be a real goof. The thought of her growing a superpower just made her get even more anxious, and annoyed. The last thing she needed keeping her up at night was Lincoln's voice telling that she had a superpower now. It was getting on her nerves.

Yet something was nagging at the back of her head. What if her brother was right? There was the whole melted bat issue that happened yesterday and she was pretty sure that fevers don't liquefy aluminum objects. The small factor that maybe Lincoln was indeed correct was only helping to amp up her anxiety. She knew that if she thought too hard on it then she would definitely think that it was true. Lynn doused her face with more water, faster this time to keep those thoughts out of her head to calm herself down, that this was nothing to be scared about. Lynn looked in the mirror to see her cheeks flushed in red both from the heat and some anger.

"Stupid Lincoln and his stupid comics," Of course Lincoln had to go see that movie with his friends. Now he was probably all hyped up that his sister now had some ability that he thought was cool, that darn nerd. Lynn swore if she heard anything more about superheroes or any of the sci-fi junk she was gonna knock some sense into Lincoln all the way till next week.

Lynn was tossed out of her inner thinking when she heard the doorknob wobble. The sporty Loud nearly jumped out of her skin. The last thing she needed right now was to get spooked this early in the morning.

"Hello?" A soft voice that Lynn identified as Luan said through the door, "Is someone in there?"

"Luan?" Lynn opened up to see Luan standing about, looking a little scared herself, "What are you doing up so early?"

"I'd ask the same to you," Luan made her way into the bathroom, "Had another nightmare?"

"N-No, not really," Lynn made sure to lock the door again so they wouldn't get interrupted, "I've been having hot flashes all night and I can't sleep."

"Well you're looking pretty heated up," Luan quipped with a soft giggle, "But seriously, are you coming down with something?"

"No, I don't feel sick," Lynn said back, "I just feel like I'm burning, like I'm standing in the middle of the desert. Lisa already took my temperature and didn't find anything, so I don't know what's going on with me. So what about you? What's gotten you so scared?"

"Oh, it's nothing," Luan answered, and it was then Lynn noticed that something was off about her sister. Ever since she walked in she had been hiding her left hand behind her back. Lynn could only imagine that Luan was going to prank her, but she'd never do it this early in the morning. So what was she doing here?

"Really, then why are you hiding your hand?" Lynn pointed out, and Luan looked like she'd just been found doing something naughty.

"N-No reason. No reason at all, Lynn." Luan said with a wavering smile. Lynn saw clear through her horrid attempt to dissuade the topic.

"Yeah, okay, show me your hand." Lynn crossed her arms, not in the mood to deal with any more guessing games. She'd had enough for one day and night with her brother and she didn't need it with the resident jokester.

"Okay but," Luan took a deep breath, steeling her nerves, "you promise to not freak out if you see?"

"Luan I don't think any of your pranks can be that-"

Lynn stopped herself cold when she Luan slowly revealed what she was hiding. For the record Lynn had seen plenty of creepy, unsettling stuff as her time, primarily coming from as Lucy Loud's roommate. She'd been dealing with talks of vampires, poems of the eventual end of times, and attempted rituals to summon monsters since they had become roommates. Lynn had thought she'd seen it all, but tonight Lynn was starting to question if there wasn't a single thing over the past day that wouldn't surprise her.

Lynn stared directly at Luan's hand, or rather what was happening to it. Her hand had turned semitransparent, almost like someone had it cropped out and turned the opacity down. It was so strange and so _off_ that it took Lynn a moment to even create a response.

"B-B-Bwuh?" Lynn sputtered, eyes as wide as dinner plates.

"That's not even the worst part," Luan muttered, and reached over with that translucent hand of her's to grab a towel, only to miss. Only she hadn't missed. Her hand had gone _through the towel_ like it wasn't even there, yet her hand remained unaffected despite being changed. Luan did it again, and Lynn felt like she was going to pass out. First her bat, now Luan's hand was passing through something that she should be touching, and it was then that her sister saw something that spooked her as well.

"Lynn, y-your hands are..." Luan pointed a shaking finger at Lynn.

It was becoming a bad omen for the sister's hands tonight. Lynn slowly looked down and saw what was happening. The veins coursing through her skin were _glowing red-hot,_ like little rivers of lava underneath the flesh. She could feel just how hot it was, even if it wasn't even affecting her at all. The air around them was distorting from the heat. That wasn't the only thing that had suddenly happened. The transparent effect that once took over Luan's hand had spread all the way to her elbow, causing her arm to be almost completely see-through.

"Luan?" Lynn whimpered. The anxiety and annoyance that she once held had turned to fear in a matter of moments and it was now reflected in her trembling voice. Luan looked her sister in the eyes when she spoke.

 _"What's happening to us?"_

...

 _Elsewhere..._

The endless rain downcast its torrential deluge over the smooth, soaked wastelands of this cold world. A bolt of lightning struck a rocky outcrop jutting from the earth. It seemed it was pouring ceaselessly for days on end, as if trying to flood the entire region. In the midst of this storm, a scene was unfolding with three unknown figures in the pouring dark.

For today, rain was not the only thing that was pouring.

"That doesn't look good." A feminine voice said from the darkness. "You know you're beaten. People like you should know when to quit."

"I know what you two are doing here." Another voice said, hacking out blood as she talked. She grasped the bleeding wounds with her hand, attempting to stem the lacerations on her body. A pool of red liquid grew beneath her as she tried to stand up and fight, but she had no strength left in her. The two of them had seen to that. Her raven-black hair clung to her face in the dampness of the rain, "After what you did to my friends?! I'll never surrender to the likes of you!"

"I think you are," A third, final voice popped out, this time a male with a deeper, mechanical tone, "Unless you want me to finish the job, starting with your head."

Through the deep blue-black haze of the endless storm she could see a pair of eyes looking down at her. One was a lime green, the other a hellish yellow. The green eyes she could tell were reflecting off of her retinas like little circles while the male's eyes were tiny orbs, glowing from robotic origins. They hung in the rain like fog lights of death casting over her. The male voice reared back his left arm, revealing a serrated blade, and would have thrust it deep into her heart only for him to suddenly stop himself from impaling her.

"What's going on?" The female voice asked as she watched her comrade turn back to face her.

"My ship just picked up a high frequency relay," He responded with a finger on his head, "Containing an encrypted message from beyond this galaxy."

"From who?"

He slowly replied, "From her."

The female voice instantly knew what he was talking about.

"Another hunting job? Sounds like fun." She humorously said.

The male voice let out a hum. "We're done here. Let's go." He said as the two of them began walking away to head back to their corvette hidden in the mountains, but not until the female voice turned back to see their target still there, wondering if they had decided to unintentionally spare her from the same fate as her friends.

"Um, aren't we forgetting a certain someone?"

" **No, I haven't.** " He responded in a bone-chilling tone, and a soft whir came from his right arm, revealing the ominous orange glow of a cannon's mouth pointed right at their target, aimed right at her head. It was bright enough to be reflected off her terrified eyes, knowing it was the end.

It was the last thing she saw before a sudden flash of light, and then darkness.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter III: Power Hour, Part 1

It was safe to say that Lynn was plenty scared.

And it wasn't just for herself, however. She'd just witness not one, but two horrifying events in the course of less than a minute. One, her hands were glowing. Two, Luan was beginning to turn more translucent as time went on. And now she was starting to panic. Sharp breaths. Dilating eyes. Shaking body. A racing mind. This wasn't something that normal humans did. Scratch that, it wasn't something that _any_ humans did for that matter. And the situation was getting stranger for the both of them. The warm sensation that came with her glowing veins was spreading up her arms to her shoulder, and Lynn didn't need to see it to know what was happening.

Luan wasn't faring much better. Spots on her body, ranging from her shoulders, legs and even her head had started to change along with her arm. Splotches of translucent spots had begun to pop up like some sort of strange breakout. There was also a faint glimmer to them, slightly different than the burning glow from Lynn's anomalous effects.

"Wow Lynn, looks like we're putting on a bit of a _freakshow_ ," Luan let out her inner joker at what might have been the most inappropriate moment in their lives, and Lynn couldn't help but throw a glare at her sister for being so indifferent at a time like this.

"You're seriously going to do this sort of crap right now?" Lynn hissed.

"Sorry, okay? I'm just, y'know, trying to cope with what's happening to us. Jokes are my go-to," Luan explained, but Lynn wasn't buying it.

"Well now ain't the best time for jokes now, okay? Just look at us!" Lynn restrained herself from letting out a full-fledged scream at her sister, but only barely. Not like they needed the whole house to see what was going on with them this early in the morning. Lynn slumped down on the ground, hiding her face behind her knees as she desperately tried to not let her sister see that she was about to spill some tears.

"W-We're turning into freaks, Luan," Lynn whimpered, her tough-girl facade completely gone, "What're we gonna do? What's gonna happen to us? Do you think we'll be taken away by some government crew? Never see our family again?"

"Lynn," Luan knelt down to grab her sister's attention, putting her unaffected hand on her shoulder, "Lynn! Look at me, okay. Just look at me."

Lynn, after a few deep gasps of air to calm herself down, looked into the eyes of her big sister.

"I know this is scary, but this isn't something we should be panicking about." Luan said, and Lynn opened her mouth to argue but was beaten to the punch, "Let me finish. I'm scared as well. How do you think I feel knowing that I've got a body that's in the middle of a disappearing act? But no matter what, we've got to keep our heads together. I know this is a little weird hearing me of all people say that, but we'll get through this, me and you. Us Louds stick together, remember?" Luan finished by gracing Lynn with a smile. Slowly the jock stood up, wiping the edges of her eyes to rub the unspent tears away.

"W-What do we do?" Lynn whispered, carefully making sure that she was as quiet as possible. She really wanted to let out a cry for help, but that would mean waking up the family in the middle of a Saturday night, something that neither of them wanted to deal with. "Is there anyone that can help us?"

"Hmm. Maybe Lisa knows what's going on," Luan scratched her chin in thought, "After all, she's the scientist."

Lynn let out a gasp.

"Lisa! Of course!" Lynn pounded her fists together, "I knew that little poindexter might have had something to do with this. She probably put something in Dad's omelets this morning! Maybe it's also the reason why I melted my bat."

"We shouldn't _bring the heat_ on anyone yet, Lynn," Luan argued, "For all we know, this could be a completely random thing. Mom and Dad had already told Lisa that she wasn't allowed to use us as her human guinea pigs anymore, so there's a chance it's not her fault."

"You honestly think that's stopped her before?" Lynn countered, and let out a deep yawn. She was still really tired from not getting any sleep this night, and now after having a near panic-attack her body was on the verge of shutting down. "Ugh, why does this have to keep me awake? I'm so darn tired."

"Perhaps we should wait until morning to figure this out. Staying up all night isn't going to help us out at all," Luan also let out a yawn, "Plus we've got Chore Day tomorrow and we really need some shuteye. Don't want to get on Lori's bad side again."

Lynn let out a short whine. She felt like fate was toying with her. Of course there was Chore Day tomorrow, but that also lead Lynn to think of something else. Just before she pushed the door open completely, she turned around and faced her sister.

"What if whatever's happening to us doesn't go away?" She asked, starting to feel the cold chill of fear again. If the rest of her sisters saw her like this then who knows what would happen. "What if they see us like this?"

"Lynn, I know for a fact that no matter what happens they'll still be the sisters we know and love," Luan replied, a gentle smile on her face, "They'll help us out, even if we change for the worse. Now let's get some sleep and call it a night."

"Okay then," Lynn said, but not before returning to her sister to give her a hug, "Thank you Luan. It means a lot."

"No prob Lynn," Luan said as she gave a hug back. The two separated and left the bathroom, returning to their own rooms to hopefully get some hours in before sunrise. Luan eventually hid herself back under the covers of her bed after gazing over her changing body in the mirror. She'd seen just how far her affliction had gone, and so far it hadn't progressed to the point of no return. She had high hopes that whatever was happening would reverse itself by morning.

As she closed her eyes, she hoped Lynn would get some shuteye as well.

...

The morning came, awakening the early risers of the Loud residence to a new Sunday sunrise. Walt gave a short chirp from his cage, and Lori came out from her room. The eldest Loud sibling rubbed her eyes and stretched her back, making sure that she was the first one to the bathroom. As the oldest she had the most rights and could do as she pleased, so she had no reason to rush. Nobody else was awake anyway.

Or so she thought when she passed by Lucy's and Lynn's room, the door slightly ajar. Which was odd since Lucy always made sure to close it before bedtime. Thinking something was off Lori peeked through the small gap and saw Lucy's coffin closed. With one little sister in the green, she turned over to Lynn and was shocked at what she saw.

Lynn had fallen asleep with her back against the wall in a sitting position, her head slumped down and her hands out in front of her like she had been holding something. Perhaps she had a nightmare again, and her stubborn pride once again refusing help.

Lori walked in, concerned for her sister now that she'd seen what was going on, and gently shook Lynn's shoulder.

"Lynn," she quietly said to wake her up, "Lynn, you okay?"

After a couple more shakes Lynn awoke, her eyes slowly peeling open to wonder what was going on. Lori saw that they were bloodshot, noticing the faded dark rings under her eyelids. It seemed like she hadn't got a wink of sleep for the entire night.

"W-Whuh?" Lynn slurred out, and saw that she had been woken up by Lori, "O-Oh, morning Lori. What's going on?"

"That's what I'm wondering about. Did you literally get any sleep last night?" Lori asked, crossing her arms. Though she asked the question she very much doubted it.

Lynn gave it some thought, and in the depths of her mind she suddenly remembered what happened last night. Her hands!

 _Oh god, don't tell me Lori saw them glowing!_ Lynn panicked as she swiftly looked down, and when she saw that the veins on her hands were no longer glowing she felt amazing relief. Gone were the rivers of heat that once plagued her appendages. They were back to normal, and that must have meant that Luan was right and had probably reversed as well. Lynn didn't stop herself from letting out a great big sigh of comfort. No more freakish incidents for this girl.

"Uh, you okay Lynn?" Lori noticed Lynn's expression change from fear to solace.

"Oh! Yeah, I just had a crazy dream last night," Lynn quickly made her excuse from a movie she saw some time ago with her baseball team, "There was some angry dude with burnt skin and a glove with knives on it. He cut off my hands and made me play sports without 'em."

"You mean the guy from _Nightmare on Elm Street_?"

"Yeah, that guy!" Lynn said, pointing a finger at her older sister, "It was so real, I woke up and thought my hands were actually gone."

"Well, I hope you know that mom and dad are going out to meet Pop-Pop in a little bit so we'll have the house to ourselves for a couple hours." Lori said to Lynn. The sporty sister wasn't expecting that little tidbit of news from her elder sister. That meant that Lori was going to go all "Miss NO" for as long as she wanted, but at least the parents would be gone. "So, I'm gonna let you sleep in. Just this once."

"Really?" Lynn said with a smile, "Oh thank you Lori, I owe you big time!" Lynn darted for her sheets and plopped her head on her pillow, and it didn't take long for her to drift into slumber. Lori watched with some worry. Ever since she'd returned home with a slagged bat strange things had been happening to Lynn. Maybe the nightmare she had was related to it. Sports were Lynn's everything, so a bad dream about losing her hands would definitely keep her up at night. Getting some actual time asleep would work wonders for Lynn.

Yet when Lori left Lynn's room for the bathroom, she failed to notice the small cracks of black scattered across Lucy's coffin, and the faint warbling noise within.

...

Morning had turned to midday, and the rest of the Loud house arose. The sun had been covered up with dark gray clouds and the soft patter of rain. By then most of them had started their day with some strife since it was a Sunday, and also Chore Day. However while it had started off as a normal day, it would end with anything but. Rita grabbed her purse hanging from the hooks by the door before she made an announcement to her children.

"Alright kids, Lori's in charge! Remember to stay safe. Your father and I will be back by at least midnight so please try to keep the house in one piece!" Rita shouted so that the whole house could hear her. Lynn stood nearby awaiting for his wife as the taxi finally arrived. "Lori, my credit card's on the counter. Please be responsible with it. I'm also trusting you to make sure they get the rest of their assigned chores done, _and_ do their homework, brush their teeth, and be ready for bed by 9."

"Don't worry mom, I've got it covered," Lori assured her. Sitting on the couch nearby was Luna strumming her electric guitar, and next to her was Lincoln playing an intense game of _Breath of the Wild_ on his Nintendo Switch.

"Have fun, guys!" Lincoln said, giving a thumbs up.

"Stay safe, dudes." Luna added.

"Farewell, kids! We'll see you soon!" Lynn waved goodbye as he and Rita left the house, leaving their home in the care of their oldest. The moment they heard their parents enter the taxi and leave Lori reached over to her phone and dialed in a number. After a few moments of soft ringing, someone picked up.

"Carol? Yeah, the parents are gone. You still up for hanging out at Becky's later after I'm done with my chores? Sweet, I'll call you back," Lori hung up and turned to her brother, "Lincoln, you mind waking up Lynn for me?"

"What's that? Oh, Lynn. Sure I got it," Lincoln said as he turned his Switch off and headed upstairs. The door to Lynn and Lucy's door was open, revealing Lucy sitting down in the middle of the room surrounded by lit purple candles and a spellbook in her hands. Lynn was still fast asleep, snoring away as Lucy practiced her incantations without being bugged by her sister. She noticed her brother standing at the doorway watching her work.

"Hello Lincoln, what brings you here?"

"I'm here to wake up Lynn, that's it," Lincoln responded, "Chore Day's about to start, might as well get her up."

"Could it wait? I'm very close to finishing this spell and I don't want any more interruptions, especially from Lynn." Lucy said as she began to murmur the bizarre words that made up her book. Lincoln for the life of him couldn't understand how she was able to read it, but somehow she knew, "I don't get that much me-time in here, plus Lynn always pokes fun at me for my spells, so I'd like to treasure what little time I have before you wake her up."

"Sure thing Lucy," Lincoln said back, "You do your thing." He saw that out of the corner of his eye the inside of Lucy's coffin was covered in a spiderweb of dark cracks. To him it just looked like someone had tried to vandalize it, probably one of his sisters. If it was of any deal to Lucy, she didn't say.

"Thank you Lincoln," Lucy went back to reading. This time she stuck out her right hand, like she had a puppet on strings wrapped in her fingers, and began to speak in a dialect far from what Lincoln had ever heard. The candles surrounding her began to flicker in an invisible wind, and Lucy's hair began to flow as well, just enough to be noticeable but not enough for her bangs to reveal her eyes. Lincoln backed up a step in slight fright. Lucy was known to be a bit of a conjurer, but this was something else.

"Lucy, what the heck's-?"

"Quiet!" She hissed, "I'm almost done, just a bit more and..." Lucy opened up the hand in front of her, Lincoln bracing himself in case anything actually happened, just to reveal...

Nothing. A big fat wad of _nothing_.

Lucy stared at her open palm. _It didn't work?_

"Another dud, Luce?" Both their heads snapped to see Lynn awake, and had presumably watched the whole thing without them noticing. "I keep telling you those spells and enchantment things are more bogus than Lincoln's comic books," Lynn laughed at another of her sister's attempts to use spells. Just another day of living with Lucy.

"Grr. They're not bogus." Lucy grit her teeth, embarrassed at having shown herself up in front of her brother and older sister. Add in her sister's laughter and she was on the verge of jumping on top of Lynn and strangling her.

"Oh yeah? Could've fooled me with all that fake mumbo-jumbo you were saying." Lynn shot back, easily getting under her spooky sister's nerves.

"Alright, that's enough you two." Lincoln interfered, but a little too late. Lucy's arms were trembling as Lynn continued to laugh, and that meant a fight was about to start. Poking fun at Lucy's questionable _abilities_ for the arcane was always something that riled up the little goth. She prided herself on being able to connect to the other side, and hearing Lynn call them _bogus_ and _fake_ was driving Lucy up the wall.

"Hey, I'm not the one over here who's practicing her phony spells like some witch," Lynn said to her brother. Lincoln furrowed his brow. Why did Lynn have to be so combative?

"It's still a little rude of you to say Lynn." Lincoln said, "How about if Lucy made fun of your basketball skills?"

"I can actually back it up, unlike Miss Dreary over here with her fake crap!"

 _That does it._

"I said," Lucy seethed in her monotone, "they're not **FAKE!** "

In her moment of anger Lucy stuck out her palm like she did before, as if trying to prove her sister that it was indeed real.

Only this time something _did_ happen. A small, shimmering purple-white circular glyph of some sort extended from her palm, decorated in an unknown language and ornamental designs. A gentle hum could be heard emanating from the glyph itself. Lynn and Lincoln barely had time to register what it was before an arc of _black lightning_ blasted out of the glyph right at the sporty Loud. Lynn shrieked and dove for her covers as the lightning impacted the wall behind her, obliterating the framed jersey hanging above her bed and leaving behind a large scorch mark and a shattered frame.

The loud crack of thunder left behind a sheer silence. Lincoln's mouth hung wide open, and Lynn peeked over her covers to check if there was gonna be anything else thrown her way. Even Lucy was stunned by what she did, looking down at the small white glyph in her hand. And as quickly as it was there, the glyph was gone, dissipating into tiny flickers.

So much for no more freakish incidents.

"Holy crap Lucy!" Lincoln practically screamed as he found his voice, "What the heck was that?!"

"I don't know," the goth stammered at first, flexing her hand, "It appears that I've somehow developed arcane abilities. _Gasp!_ Am I actually turning into a witch?"

"Oh god," Lynn whimpered, realizing that whatever was happening to her and Luan was _spreading_ like some sort of virus, "Not you too Lucy!"

It took a couple moments for Lynn to realize her slip-up just as it left her mouth. The jock clammed up, eyes wide as she looked at her siblings. Lucy and Lincoln stared at the blanket-clad girl with curious, if not _astonished_ looks.

"Oops, heh heh," she squeaked. _Smooth one, Lynn._

"Lynn?" Lincoln slowly said, "What do you mean by, _you too?"_

"U-um..."

"DUDES!" Luna's scream pierced the house and saved Lynn from an explanation, "Come here, quick! You gotta see this!"

The family rushed over when they heard what Luna said. Whatever it was sounded very serious. Lynn, Lucy and Lincoln were the first ones there followed by the rest of their siblings as they stopped by the rocker's open door. In their room Luna stood next to Luan, or what seemed like Luan. Unlike the night before Luan had now turned completely transparent, the background of her bedroom blending in with her body. They could see straight through her like a looking glass. The jokester sheepishly waved at them. Leni let out a scream of terror.

"What happened to Luan?! She's turned into a ghost!" Leni shrieked, hands on her face. Most of her sisters and brother shared her shock, except Lynn. She looked like she was ready to pass out.

"Correction, second-eldest sibling. Luan had turned clairvoyant, not into a ghost as you believe," Lisa pushed up her glasses as she spoke, "Though this is quite an interesting dilemma we have."

"Guess I'm leaving you all _aghast_ since you all got to _see_ what's going on with me, get it?" Even in times like these, Luan still found room to make a joke. The siblings let out a groan. "Ha ha ha, two for one! But seriously, I'm not a ghost. I'm very much alive." Thankfully she was still her normal self, and it didn't seem like she was in any sort of pain.

"B-But you're-!" Luna flubbed out, pointing a shaky finger at her roommate.

"I'm not invisible, see? Watch this," Luan somehow grabbed her sister's hand and shoved into her transparent stomach, and Luna felt her finger tough nothing. But the sight of her finger piercing her sister without any sort of interaction caused her to jump back yelling while flailing her arms, "Ha ha ha! Looks like you _felt_ that one! And neither did I!"

"LUAN!"

Before they could descend into another argument about what to do Lincoln stopped them.

"Hold on a moment girls," Lincoln rubbed the bottom of his chin, "Lynn, earlier you said " _not you too_ " after Lucy nearly shot you with a lightning bolt. Did you already know about what was happening to Luan?"

"Wait a second, Lucy did what?" Lori stressed out, and on que Lucy summoned a glyph for her shocked sisters to see, and they all looked at it with wide eyes.

"Wow, so you can actually use magic now? That's awesome Luce!" Lana said excitedly.

"So that loud booming sound was you?" Lori asked again, "That nearly gave me a heart attack, Lucy!"

"Yes, and I apologize for that. I was under some great annoyance from Lynn," Lucy responded, and Lynn let out a gulp. She noticed that all of her sibling's attention was directly on her, and none of them looked too pleased with her being a pest to her sister. The gentle hum from Lucy's hand grew louder, and she saw that Lucy was aiming the glyph right at her face. She slightly recoiled at the sight, remembering what happened earlier in their room.

"Looks like you're in the _hot seat_ now, Lynn," Luan quipped. _Please take the hint,_ she mentally urged.

"Well?" Lincoln asked with a sharp edge with his fists on his sides, "Mind explaining yourself, Lynn?"

Lynn looked around the room, and seeing that she was essentially cornered, there was no other option.

"No point in hiding it anymore," Lynn groaned, and willed her body to start. With a single flex she felt the heat return to her skin, her veins once again aglow with the same burning feeling she had the night before. And just like Luan, her newfound ability had also changed. It wasn't just on her arms anymore, the glowing effect had reached her eyes, the formerly brown irises in her eyes had changed to a burning yellow-orange. And underneath her jersey where her heart should be was a huge glowing spot, almost bright enough to poke clean through her shirt.

Between a burning sister, another turned untouchable, and one using magic, Lori had some appropriate words for the situation.

" _Holy shit._ "


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter IV: Power Hour, Part 2

 _Some time later..._

"Alright Lincoln, we get it. You were right about me having a superpower, so could you stop smiling?"

"No way Lynn, this is far too awesome!"

The Louds had gone to the living room to discuss the situation that they found themselves in, now that three of their siblings had revealed that they had powers. Lynn, Lucy and Luan were being as quiet as they could be as their sisters and brother tried to make sense of what had happened not too long ago. Lynn's body had cooled down and Lucy's glyphs had disappeared, but Luan was flickering between touchable and untouchable like a broken lightbulb. Instead of sitting on the couch like the jock and the goth, the prankster was standing up. She didn't want to suddenly fuse with anything if her body decided to become whole again.

"You alright mate?" Luna worriedly asked her sister and roommate, noticing how her new powers were fluxing rapidly.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I feel like I have an awful tummy ache though," Luan said as she rubbed her stomach.

"That's probably from the stress, dude," Luna reasoned, "Nothing like turning into something out a comic book to rattle your nerves."

"I guess so," Luan said, but still that tight ball in her gut wouldn't go away, like someone had dropped a gallon of hot juice in her. She certainly didn't feel that stressed out even with her body changing so strangely. All she had to eat for breakfast this morning was a frozen bagel and some orange juice, so it wasn't something she ate. Maybe it was from her strange powers. Intangibility would certainly have some odd effects on someone's bodily functions.

"I can't believe it, my sisters have superpowers!" Lincoln giddily fourth-walled, a big goofy smile on his face, "Though I wonder just how they managed to get them."

"So does anyone have any ideas on how we get our sisters back to normal?" Lori asked, but nobody had any answers, shaking their heads at her, "Great. This is literally just great. I've got one sister on fire, another that's turning into an actual magician, and one that can't stop friggin' flickering!"

"I'd prefer the term enchantress," Lucy quietly said, but was drowned out almost immediately.

"I can't help it!" Luan cried out to her defense, "Ever since I got this stomachache it hasn't gone away!"

"Maybe you just need to throw up," Lana responded, and suddenly let out a tiny gasp, "Maybe that's how I'll get my powers! Luan, if you puke, gimme your vomit so I can drink it and become a superhero!"

"That's the nastiest thing I've heard all week," Lola gagged. Just the thought about Lana slurping up her sister's puke nearly made the princess gag.

"But it could work!"

"Nobody is drinking anybody's vomit, Lana!" Lori said to shut her sister up. Normally she wouldn't be so harsh but she was beyond stressed at this point. It was her job to keep her siblings in line and make sure the house stayed in one piece before their parents came home. Three of her little sisters suddenly growing superpowers was not on the menu for today. She planned on hanging with the girls later, not safeguarding their home from potential disaster.

"Lisa," Lori turned to the one person who could have a clue on what was going on, "could you find out what might be going on with Lynn, Lucy and Luan?"

"Perhaps, eldest sibling," Lisa reasoned, scratching the bottom of her chin as she gave it thought, "I _have_ done previous experiments regarding a certain level of abnormal human abilities, but this is certainly not of my doing. This level of mutation is beyond me, as astounding as that sounds."

"So this isn't your fault?" Lynn pressed, certain that the little scientist was behind it.

Alas, she was in the wrong.

"Didn't I just stress that whatever your body is doing is something not even I myself am capable of creating?" Lisa responded, a little peeved that she would _of course_ be blamed by her sisters for their newfound powers. Sure she had a reputation for experimenting, but she still had a heart buried inside of her. "I digress. We must get to the bottom of this phenomenon before our parental units arrive."

"Agreed. So, what do we do?"

"First I'll need a sample to identify what is causing our sibling's strange abilities," Lisa whipped out a rather large syringe with an equally large needle from her supply bag, something that made the family blanch at the sight of it. For starters Lynn was never a fan of shots ever since she was a baby and Lucy only desired the feeling of fangs puncturing her flesh, not cruel metal. "Oh relax you ignoramuses, this won't hurt you at all."

"That's a pretty big needle there, Lisa. Are trying to extract blood from humans or dinosaurs?" Lincoln said, pointing at the shimmering piece of steel.

"Perhaps both if the time ever arrives in the future," Lisa shrugged off Lincoln's comment and made her way over to the two super-siblings on the couch, "Now I suggest you remain calm at all times so I don't miss."

"U-Um," Lynn stammered, eyes shrunk to pinpricks. A hot bead of sweat trickled down her temple as she watched Lisa aim the large chrome needle at the largest blood vein that her arm offered. "You're positive you know what you're doing?"

"Lynn, I promise I would never dream of intentionally harming you." Lisa assuredly said.

"O-Okay, but just make you don't miss, alright?" Lynn said again.

"I won't unless you stop shaking," Lisa responded, trying to get Lynn's arm to be still.

"Are you sure you need a needle that big?" Lynn quickly asked right before Lisa was about to inject. The little scientist was about to say something but was beaten by Lore putting her hands on Lynn's shoulders.

"Lynn, we _literally_ don't have time for this! Be a big girl and take the damn shot!" Lori said to the sporty girl, already fed up with her sister's nonsense. Her shout was loud enough, _pun intended,_ to completely subdue her sister's fears. Nothing like a frustrated howl of rage to make her sibling listen. Lynn slowly stretched out her hand and exposed the soft, vulnerable vein on her arm for Lisa. She turned away, biting her lip as Lisa rubbed a wad of wet cotton on her target spot and proceeded with the injection. A quick pinch and the needle had found the vessel, quickly filling up with her blood.

Thankfully whatever ability Lynn had didn't affect the syringe at all. Her blood however was revealed to have a brighter shade of red. Lynn noticed it, and so did Lisa, but they didn't say anything about it. They'd find out whatever was going on soon enough.

"That should do it," Lisa carefully withdrew the syringe from her sister's arm, "See? Was that so harmful?"

"No," Lynn responded, rubbing the tiny red circle where the needle went into her arm. While Lynn was calming her wound Lisa detached the filled bottle of orange-red blood into a foam-laden silver case, one that looked right out of a science fiction movie. Everyone suspected that their blood hadn't been the first thing put in that little thing.

Lucy went next, while not as resistant as Lynn was, everyone could tell that she wasn't having a fun time. Lucy's blood had no oddities, something that the goth was truly relieved about. She carefully put Lucy's blood right next to Lynn's. With Lucy's blood drawn and ready for inspection, Lisa focused her attention onto the third and final sibling with the untouchable body.

"Hey Luan? You're not looking so good."

Lisa turned around to see that Lola's observation was quite indeed correct. In the moments that she had done her business with Lynn and Lucy, Luan's powers had started to fluctuate in even stranger means. Like a television with static on its screen, Luan's body was seemingly going completely haywire. One moment there were lines zig-zagging at diagonal angles, the next it was pulsing rings, and it didn't stop there.

Luan herself looked like she had decided to go twelve rounds on DairyLand's Milk Shaker. The comedian was barely holding herself together, eyes half-lidded and mouth parted open. A soft gurgling noise emanated from Luan's translucent body.

"Oh man Luan, you look you're about to vomit," Lana said, and remembered something she wanted to ask, "By the way, can I still drink it?"

"Ugh," Luan groaned, sounding about as awful as she looked, "Guys? I don't feel so hot."

The moment Luan finished talking she let out a short wet burp. She quickly put her hands on her mouth to stop whatever was coming up from coming out. Whatever her body was rejecting was not sitting down quietly. Not one to tempt her fate, Luan ran upstairs as fast as she could to get to the toilet. Her family followed suite, worried about their prankster sister suddenly getting sick. Once they reached the top of the stairs the door to the bathroom slammed shut.

"Luan? Are you okay?" Leni knocked on the door, and was greeted with the sounds of Luan upchucking something nasty into the toilet, "Huh. I didn't quite catch that."

"Leni, it's obvious whatever strange power that Luan has received has also directly impacted her health," Lisa explained as Luan continued to hurl.

"Maybe Luan's body is trying to get rid of her superpower," Lincoln guessed, "Or maybe even trying to stabilize it." Lori raised a quizzical eyebrow.

"By puking it out?" Lori said back, "That is-"

"Cool!"

"Gross!"

Lori looked down at the twins and said back, "Yeah, that."

"It might make sense granted our situation at hand," Lisa agreed to Lincoln's proposal, "Perhaps Luan's body is having an allergic reaction towards her intangibility, and is now trying to expel it from her systems, or as Lincoln stated attempting to regain control of it, in a rather unconventional method."

 _"HUUUUURK!"_

"A rather grotesque unconventional method, if I may say so," Lisa added on as Luan unleashed yet another puke volley. It seemed to be the last one as well since the bathroom fell silent afterwards. Seemed like it was over. None of the family made a move to check if Luan was feeling better until Lana spoke up.

"Well, time to get my superpower," Lana said as she marched on to the bathroom door and knocked on it, "Yo Luan, you good in there? Please don't tell me you flushed it down, I want my power-vomit drink!"

Slowly the door opened to reveal Luan standing there, along with the fact that her body had stopped acting strange. The Loud siblings were certainly surprised with that little tidbit. The trickster was wiping away from gunk from her lip with a towel, and while she looked a bit messy it was apparent that whatever she just puked out certainly made her feel better.

"Woo boy that was nasty. I didn't know I could puke that much," Luan said, noticing that her body had stopped going into a flux, "Hey, wouldn't you know? My body's calmed down." Luan poked her stomach to make sure nothing would happen, and saw that her finger easily pushed in her skin and bounced back out.

"Yeah, but can you make yourself intangible again?" Lincoln asked.

"Make myself what-now?" Luan tilted her head. She wasn't too deep into superpower lore and only knew a generic handful, so Lincoln might as well have been using Lisa-talk with her. "Is that what my power's called? What does it do?"

"Well first you gotta activate it somehow," Lincoln said as he stepped forward, "Usually, people's powers are often linked to emotions or memories. Do what Lynn and Lucy did."

"Alright Link, I'll give it a try," Luan readied herself by standing up straight and mentally focused on what she loved, the things she had been doing for years. She thought of pranks, jokes, stand-up comedy, stuff that she used to spread laughter and made her feel great. To the other sisters and her brother it looked like she was trying to squeeze out a stuck fart, her face contorted with puffed cheeks and furrowed brow. After a couple seconds of attempting to conjure up something similar to what her sister's did, Luan opened her eyes and saw that nothing had happened.

So she tried it again, this time a little harder. Luan could feel _something_ inside her, like a glowing star getting brighter and brighter. She grit her teeth and squeezed her buttocks to try and force out whatever that sensation was building up in her body.

"Um, Luan?" Luna took a step forward, watching as Luan tried to make something happen, "Are you sure you're doing this-"

No sooner had Luna tried to put her hand on her sister's shoulder to calm her down did Luan finally reach her goal. One moment she was there...

 _VWORP!_

...and then she wasn't.

The rocker blinked. She and the rest of her family weren't quite sure what she'd just witnessed. Her roommate had vanished in a flicker of banana-yellow light.

"Whoa."

Not even a second after it happened they all turned around to see none other than Luan standing there on the opposite side of the hallway, little beads of tangent light flickering around her. Soon the lights surrounding her died out, leaving the confused Loud who could only guess just what had happened to her just then. The comedian made sure that she was all here and not lost, touching her face and chest. Her family was in the same boat, even Lucy and Lynn were astounded by what they had just seen, and they still had their powers.

"What just happened?" Luan asked.

"You just teleported!" Lincoln jubilantly responded. Once again that swell of excitement was growing inside of him as he answered his newly-powered sister. "That must be your real power, Luan! You can teleport!"

"Wait, I can?" She said, and then envisioned herself right in the midst of the group in front of her. And sure enough in a warp of yellow light she was right there. "Holy schmoley, I can! This is so cool! Wow, based on your reactions I guess you can all say that I can't _tell-a-part_ you guys, ha ha ha-YEOWCH! Lisa!"

"That was for tossing another of your less-than quality puns," Lisa said as she extracted her sister's blood and pulled the needle from Luan's arm, "Now if you all excuse me, I'll be in my room to study this phenomena. In the meantime I suggest to my superpowered siblings that you start to maintain your newfound abilities more carefully. I doubt anyone is prepared to see what is happening to us, especially our parental units, heavens forbid."

"Lisa's right," Lori pounded a fist in her open hand, "There's no way we can literally let anyone find out about this, especially mom and dad. Lucy, Lynn, try not to annoy each other until Lisa finds out what's going on. Luan, just... walk if you can."

"Gotcha."

"'Kay."

"No problemo, sis!"

...

Some time had passed since then, and slowly the Loud house returned to its normal nature. Lisa was currently in her room looking over the blood samples from Lynn, Lucy and Luan. The overhead lights had been turned off, leaving most of the room in the dark besides the sole desk lamp at Lisa's lab. Lily, the youngest of the Loud family, was standing up watching her scientist sister peer through the lens of an enormous microscope and occasionally write down a sentence or two on her notepad. The baby didn't understand what was going on now but she could feel the intense urgency coming from Lisa.

"Poo poo?" The baby asked, trying to get Lisa's attention. She'd been asleep when the revelations came out, and had no clue of what had happened to her sisters.

"Ah, I see you're awake my younger sister. It just so happens that there is indeed a slight family emergency," Lisa said, turning around to face the one-year old, "It appears that some of our sisters have been gifted, or possibly cursed, with unnatural superhuman abilities, things that would usually be found in comic books, not real life."

Lily tilted her head and didn't say anything else, opting to simply watch her older sibling. Taking it as a sign to continue the scientist went back to studying the samples as she pushed a small glass slide with a drop of Lucy's blood on the stage to get a deeper look at the secrets that may be inside. Lisa considered herself to be a woman of science and logic and had herself constantly pushed the boundaries of what was and wasn't possible with her exceptional intelligence. The tests, products and devices that she had constantly created was a testament to that. If there was anyone in the Loud house that could figure out what was really happening it would be her.

Lisa was surprised when she peered through the lens and saw that there were nothing unusual with the goth's blood. Just the usual dark red cells floating in the miasma. That was certainly normal. She had clearly remembered seeing the strange glyphs that Lucy was able to create on her palms. Lisa scribbled down some notes on the notepad on her right.

 _LUCY_ \- _No visible mutations in blood sample. Cells remain unaffected by abilities. Magic?_

As silly as it sounded it was the only explanation that Lisa could find.

"Onto the next."

She pulled out Lucy's slide and swapped it for Lynn's. This time there was a definite sign of something strange. It wasn't just that her blood was now a brighter color, her cells were acting differently. From what she could see the cells themselves were covered in glowing orange-yellow splotches, like they were spattered with magma.

 _LYNN_ \- _Visible mutations located on blood cells. Color change and heat conductors? Must run further experiments._

Finally onto Luan. At first Lisa didn't notice anything, until several of the cells under the microscope lens started to glow yellow and then fade out, each one at different instances. That was about it. If she was honest, Lisa was expecting something far stranger for Luan, considering she could bend space-time into personal wormholes.

 _LUAN_ \- _Light emanating from individual cells. Byproduct perhaps? Previous intangibility might be a clue._

Lisa set down her pencil and began to think. She was stumped, caught in a rut for an explanation. Investigating her sister's blood only heightened more questions for the scientist. What could be causing these mutations? It seemed that Luan's powers only left a slight aftereffect with her blood, while Lynn's seemed to be the source and Lucy's remained untouched. It was more confusing than what she had hoped for. Perhaps she didn't look deep enough.

A sudden rush overcame Lisa as she realized she was looking in the wrong spot. She shot up, wondering how she didn't see it sooner.

"Of course!" She said to herself, "DNA! Our genetic code must have an answer!"

Lisa peered back into Luan's blood with her microscope, amplifying the magnification to hopefully find a clue.

"Oh my," Lisa muttered. Instead of DNA, she'd found something else entirely. In Luan's cells lay an extra organ. What did Lincoln call it? Oh yes.

 _A metagene._

Lisa sampled Lynn and Lucy's and found the same exact result. Each of her sisters had grown a newfound cellular organ in their bodies. Lisa couldn't believe her eyes on what she was seeing. And then she realized something else. In her rush to see if her sisters had also developed a metagene, Lisa had grabbed the slides from her desk and looked at them with her own eyes, _but could still see the cells within._ Not since she'd found the metagene in Luan's cells had she used her microscope. She blinked, and her entire field of vision turned deep blue. She let out a surprised shriek, dropping the slide on the floor. She reached to pick it up and noticed that her hands were glowing.

No, they weren't glowing as Lisa quickly found out. She was seeing her body's infrared temperature, her stubby fingers coated in oranges and yellows. She calmed herself down as she investigated what was happening to her.

"Have I developed thermal vision?"

She blinked again, and this time she saw _bone._

"X-ray too?" Lisa said, rubbing her eyes and wishing that it would return to normal. When she opened, she was both relieved and startled that her vision had come back to visible colors, but also that she herself had grown a superpower like her three sisters.

"If I am able to suddenly gain superpowers like my siblings," Lisa said, starting a hypothesis for her and the rest of the Loud house, "who's to say that my other siblings have not also become infected with this wave of mutation? Will we all receive superhuman abilities?"

All of a sudden it slowly dawned on her. These powers that she and her sisters had suddenly grown were spontaneous. Lisa herself had done blood work on her sisters many times before when it came to stuff such as illnesses and vaccines. Not once did she see this glowing white organ, and human bodies don't just decide to have superheated blood, spawn magic, see radiation or bend space-time in a single day. As she gave more thought to it, Lisa realized that there might be a much darker answer to their problems.

...

"Leni, have you seen my blouse?" Lori asked as she rummaged through her closet. Time was short and she needed to look as good as possible for her night out with her friends. Granted there were some maddening issues at home such as her siblings suddenly getting superpowers, but for now the house had calmed down. She wouldn't be out for long, just to mingle with her friends for an hour or so and get ready for the rest of the school week.

School. Lori gave it a sad thought. How would her sisters deal with their powers outside their family if Lisa couldn't find a cure? They'd be shunned, outcasts in some of the most important years of their lives. It wasn't fair.

"I think I left it over on my bed," Leni said as she brushed her hair, making sure to do exactly fifty strokes to get her consistency right.

"Thank you Leni." Lori stepped out and saw that there was indeed her blouse and a custom-designed mid-riff dress next to it. She put her blouse over her undergarments, and decided to give that dress some attention. Where had it come from?

"Hey Leni, is this dress yours?" She held up the dress to her fashionista sister.

"Yep! I made it myself. It's _totes_ stylish, right? I made it for Lynn to help her feel better." Leni said. Lori couldn't lie, the dress was eloquently designed as expected from Leni's craft. But that color was familiar. She then noticed a huge chunk of Leni's dark pink blanket had been cut out from the corner, almost like she'd sliced it clean off. And the dress in her hands was the same color. It didn't take Lori long enough to know what happened.

"Did you literally use one of your blankets to make this?" Lori asked, wondering how Leni was actually able to create something this finely made from a simple blanket. "How?"

"Oh that was easy, watch!" Leni said as she stood up and made her way over to her blanket. Imagine Lori's sheer shock when Leni's hands were suddenly coated in a seafoam green light, pulsating in cartoon-like waves as a segmented rectangular chunk of her blanket popped right out and hovered in the air, surrounded in that light coming out of the fashionista's palms. And then the most incredible thing happened. The piece that Leni was 'holding' began to _unravel itself._ Every strand of fiber, cloth and linen disentangled and unformed themselves into a mass of pink and white floating in the air right in front of both Leni and Lori's eyes.

And then it began to reform itself again. The bits and pieces that once hung in the light-coated air slowly began to weave themselves back together, but this time into something else. What was once a piece of Leni's blanket slowly became a finely-stitched skirt with pink and white stripes running in horizontal patterns. The light began to die down as the freshly-woven skirt drifted into Leni's waiting hands like a leaf in the wind.

"And _viola!_ " Leni said, holding up her new custom skirt, "Check it out! It _so_ matches Lynn's new dress, right Lori? Lori?"

 _Whump!_

"OH-EM-GOSH! Guys, come quick! I think I just killed Lori!"


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter V: Meta

 _Inside the Large Magellanic Cloud..._

The large corvette soared through the emptiness of space, cruising on through a local solar system in the dwarf galaxy. An enormous gas giant, covered with swirling green and blue clouds, passed by as the ship continued its journey. The spacecraft itself was huge, stretching well over two hundred meters long and colored a deep metallic black which blended in with the darkness surrounding it, pocketed with red bands of deep red light along the midsection stretching to the arrow-shaped forward deck. A quintet of equally red, hexagonal thrusters glowed brightly as the ship continued, passing by a pair of stars that served as the lifelight of this system.

Inside the ship the two occupants were currently conversing in the navigation room. It was filled with red screens that displayed various other planets and systems from all over the universe. Currently, the two occupants of the ship were looking at a holographic projection of the Milky Way, tinted a deep red.

"So where are we headed this time? Treguna? Or how about Rabulun Four?" The female voice asked, leaning on a metal swivel chair as she looked at the red-colored light show in front of her. Her mechanical friend pressed a button on the holo-pad, which caused the holographic galaxy to suddenly expand, revealing a solar system with eight planets.

He reached out, pressing his finger against the third world presented above the projector, causing it to grow in size and reveal their target world. A familiar world for both of them.

"That's... Earth." She wondered out loud. She stood up to get a better view of the little world. "The seed landed there? Are you sure?"

"It's interstellar trajectory matches Earth's position. The seed must have arrived on this planet not too long ago, which means that its genetic cargo has already been dispersed into the population." He responded, watching as a thin line drew itself across Earth's surface towards an impact zone on one of the northern continents. The end of the line held a blinking circle where it indicated the seed's impact zone, right on an inland peninsula located next to a large lake. "Good for us."

"So we're going to Earth, huh? Let's get to it. I'll be in my room if you need me." She stood up and left the nav-room. Her ally stayed behind, watching the indicator's position on the globe. His yellow optics narrowed as he focused on that blinking circle, wondering just who had been transformed by the seed's mutagens. Whoever they were, they would be found, no matter who else got in their way.

...

 _Royal Woods._

"So she just fainted when she saw you use your powers?"

"Was that what I was doing? I thought I was just making a skirt for Lynn."

"Hold on dudes, Lori's waking up," a muffled voice that she recognized as Luna said in the darkness. Lori pried her eyes open and blinked a couple times to clear the fuzz from her vision, and saw the ceiling of the living room above her. Her siblings must have brought her down after she saw Leni do that crazy power of her's. Speaking of whom, the fashionista was dawdling with Lily, bouncing the giggling baby on her knees surrounded by infant toys. Lincoln, Lynn and Luna stood around their dear older sister, the rockstar holding a small bowl of water. The rest of her family was sitting around doing their own thing.

"Wakey wakey, Lori," Lynn said-sung, using her heat powers to warm up the wet towel in her hand to dab it on Lori's forehead, "How are you feeling?"

"How am I feeling?" Lori asked incredulously, like it was the most insulting question that her sporty sister had ever asked her. She started to raise her voice as she stood up, "Oh, I'm just feeling literally dandy Lynn! Absolutely fantastic! Not like my siblings are growing superpowers or anything, oh no! It must be weather then!"

"So," Lynn drawled, "is that a no?"

"OF COURSE IT IS!" Lori screeched, and then flopped back down on the couch with her hand on her forehead, "I take it Leni told you what happened?"

"You mean how she's got powers too?" Lincoln said, taking a look at his older sister playing with Lily's blocks as the baby watched on. She couldn't decide which block fits through the shape she wanted to put it in, despite it being a simple triangle. "Leni was freaking out because she thought her powers actually ended your life."

Lori allowed a single chuckle to escape her lips. It was enough to get the immediate younger sister's attention.

"Oh Lori, thank goodness!" Leni rushed over and gently grasped Lori's hand, "I thought you were dead! Are you alright?"

"I'm fine Leni, really," Lori said as she rose up to a sitting position, "So, your powers Leni. Mind telling me what that literally was?"

"Fabrication, elder sister," the voice of Lisa caught her attention as the small scientist made her way to the living room holding a clipboard, "Leni has the ability to take raw or otherwise useful nonliving materials, such as the fabric of her blanket, and turn them into objects of her own desire, such as the dress she made for Lynn. An utterly fascinating superpower that is quite fitting for our sister." Lisa explained to Lori, who found the name of her sister's power kind of entrancing. It was something that fit Leni.

"Not gonna lie, that power's kinda cool," Lynn nudged Leni, who beamed at the jock.

"Aw, thanks Lynn. I also made you a skirt before I almost killed Lori." Leni responded, and Lori let out a soft sigh.

"You didn't - _ah_ , nevermind." Lori waved her complaint away.

"I hope you pardon my interruption to this content moment, but at this time I would like everyone's attention regarding the sudden bodily mutations that our sisters are exhibiting," Lisa announced, and all eyes fell on her. It was easy for the scientist to have the focus of her sisters and brother on this day. She flipped through the clipboard in her hands, "My tests conducted on the blood samples that the three of you had been so gracious to donate have been looked over, and I can conclude that I have the possible answer to whatever is happening to those affected."

"You've found it, didn't you?" Lincoln excitedly asked, and Lisa turned to face her brother.

"Yes Lincoln I have. The tests that I have done on Lucy, Lynn and Luan's blood have indeed revealed a brand new microscopic organ located inside their cells, the source of where they have developed their superhuman abilities, codename: _metagene_. I took the liberty to borrow the name from Lincoln's comics. This organ has in turn heavily mutated their DNA, allowing them to sustain and develop these powers within them." Lisa took the time to let the information settle in. For the sisters who had powers it was a stark contrast to what they were expecting.

"But you can still cure us, right Lisa?" Lynn dropped the one question they were all wondering. "Lisa?"

Lisa then dropped the other bit of news that nobody was going to like.

"No. I cannot. The level of mutation you now have is something not even the most advanced sciences on this planet can achieve, let alone attempt to fix. I'm afraid there is no sort of cure for this. I am truly sorry, Lynn." Lisa dejectedly said to her, stunning the family with her news. The fact that these powers were not something temporary, but rather permanent, was alarming. Lynn slumped down on the couch, looking like she had been totally defeated in one of her games. The sports star felt like the life she had known was now gone, replaced by the fact that she had become a fire-wielding mutant.

"Well, this sucks," Lynn sadly sighed, "Looks like I can kiss my sports careers goodbye forever."

"Hey, it's okay Lynn! There's more to you than just sports!" Leni assured, playing the supportive big sister she knew how.

"Yeah! Cheer up Lynn, it's not like you haven't burnt all your bridges yet! Think of the things you can do with your superheat. And with my powers," Luan said as she warped in a flash of light, and then came back with Mr. Coconuts in her right hand, "I can go wherever I want in this house and maybe even the entire neighborhood on a whim!"

"And I can finally utilize my spells for real this time," Lucy said as well, a smile on her face, "I'll become a necromancer and summon the undead."

"Lucy and Luan are right, Lynn. Just because you have powers doesn't mean that you can't play sports anymore, you just gotta learn how to master it," Lincoln said, slowly getting more excited as he went on talking, "But imagine if we all had superpowers! Think about it! We could... we could become _superheroes!_ " Lincoln finished by putting a fist up in the air in a heroic manner. He saw it clearly, him and his sisters as the heroes of Royal Woods! Defenders of justice, and scourge of all evil!

"Yeah, sorry to burst your bubble Lincoln, but that comic book stuff is all fiction, as in not real," Luan said to her brother, "There's no way we'd be caped crusaders without people knowing who were are. Ten girls and a brother? Who else has that kind of family?"

"Plus only four of us have powers little dude," Luna pointed out as well, "We can't exactly be all superheroes when-"

"Five."

Luna turned her head to Lisa, who interrupted her. "What?"

" _Five_ of us have developed powers. Lucy, Lynn, Luan, Leni and myself," Lisa finished by sighing out, "It appears that I too have grown my own superpowers, coincidentally around the same time when I had found the resulting catalyst for our now shared mutation."

That certainly left her family stunned. Hearing that Lisa, their brainy, super-smart sister, also had a super ability was startling. That meant that half of the Loud siblings had powers, and the other half which consisted of Lincoln, the twins, Lori and Luna didn't.

"Woah, you've got powers too Lisa? What are they? Can you show us?" Lincoln ecstatically asked, his comic-loving mood coming back full force.

"Allow me to demonstrate my newfound abilities to you," Lisa said, putting her clipboard down on the table. Her eyes, accented by her thick-rimmed glasses, suddenly shot out a solid beam of white-yellow light, similar to that of a spotlight. The rest of the siblings let out a gasp as they witnessed their sister turn into a walking projector. Lincoln shielded his eyes from being blinded from Lisa's light-vision, but he could still see her irises on her glasses, little black spots that were looking right at him. Lisa then turned towards her sisters, who reacted the same way Lincoln did. They all let out a cry of displeasure when Lisa aimed her eye-light at them.

"I guess you really are as _bright_ as they say you are!" Luan tried to crack a joke before she warped out of Lisa's light.

"Darnit, Lisa! Turn yourself down, would ya?!" Lola cried out as she put an arm over her eyes, "You're hurting my eyes with your stupid powers!"

"Apologies, Lola," Lisa said, turning off her vision with a hard blink, "I'm still getting used to my abilities."

"So you have vision-based superpowers? That's awesome, Lisa!" Lincoln said, his comic book fantasies coming back full force.

"Along with X-ray and thermal vision. Though I doubt that is the extent of my abilities." Lisa replied with a small smile on her face, wiping her glasses with her shirt as she did so. She was feeling a little humored by showing off her powers to her siblings, especially her brother, the comic fan that he was.

Back on the couch, Lynn crossed her arms and huffed, slumping further down as she scowled. Seeing and hearing what Lisa was capable of only made her think of what Lucy, Leni and Luan could do as well. Compared to her sisters Lynn felt like she got the short stick of the bunch here. Lucy had magic, _actual magic_ , something that she'd been calling her out on being fake for years. Leni could pretty much make whatever she wanted with anything she had, like dresses and skirts, so the fashionista got her dream power. And Luan could teleport! The sporty Loud's superheat only gave her problems rather than being something awesome.

"Great, everyone else here gets cool powers and I'm stuck with something totally lame," she grumbled, "This is such crap."

"What do you mean, lame?" Lana shouted at her older sister, "At least you have powers, Lynn!"

"Yeah Lynn! Be grateful for once!" Lincoln said alongside Lana.

"Grateful?! The only thing my stupid power did is turn me into a walking candle! Everyone else here got lasers and spells and all that other stuff, and what do I get? I get to _melt things!_ Hooray for me!" Lynn sarcastically cheered as she waved her arms like she was celebrating, and then went right back to frowning.

"That unfortunately brings me to my current hypothesis regarding these powers," Lisa said, but the seriousness of her voice drew her siblings attention. She pushed up her glasses before she continued. "My analysis of these microscopic organs that have modified our DNA have shown that they are an incredibly new development. These mutating structures did not exist prior to a very recent timescale. And with the current rate of visible mutation our family, there lies another possibility that everyone in this family has been afflicted in the same manner."

"So what does that mean?" Lincoln asked, slightly nervous. And Lisa dropped the bombshell.

"It means, Lincoln, that there is a good chance that we will _all develop superpowers._ " Lisa replied. It took Lincoln a moment to register what Lisa said before a very big grin grew on his face. His sisters were a mixed bag: Lana and Lola were surprised, Luna was smiling like Lincoln and Lori looked horrified.

"So there's an actual possibility that we're going to have powers?!" He shouted, pure excitement laced in his voice. To say he was thrilled that he might actually have a superpower, something that he'd always dreamed of having, was a massive understatement. Lisa winced from Lincoln's jubilant shout before she answered.

"Yes, but keep in mind that it might happen. We have no definite proof that it will, but with the evidence gathered today it is more than likely." She concluded, and Lincoln let out a whooping cheer. It was if he had seen something spectacular.

"I'm gonna have superpowers!" He cried out, putting his hands in the air. He began muttering to himself, "This is seriously the most awesome thing that's ever happened to me!" Lincoln wasn't alone in his excitement. Lana and Lola were smiling as well, and Luna seemed pretty chill about the whole thing. Lori however was definitely not as excited as her siblings.

"S-So that means we're all gonna become mutant freaks?!" She shrieked, standing up with her hands on her face. She walked over to the window where the mid-day sun still shined through. The horror scenarios that were running inside her head didn't help to soothe her mood. If any more of her siblings, or God forbid she herself, got a superpower she was gonna freak out hard, harder than right now. "What's gonna happen to us?! What will mom and dad think? What will _Bobby_ think of me if he finds out?!"

"Woah, take it easy there Lori, it's not the end of the world. As long as we learn how to control our future abilities then nobody will ever know." Lincoln tried to calm his sister down, but she wasn't having any of it. In her frantic mood her feelings were all over the place and now she was definitely not liking Lincoln's attempt to soothe her. She rounded on him, teeth bared and eyes wide with anger.

"Oh, this is all just fun and games for you, ain't that right Lincoln?" Lori seethed, and the sole brother took a step back as the family began to witness another one of Lori's vicious meltdowns, "Just accept it and move on?" She crudely imitated Lincoln's voice, " _It's not the end of the world, blah blah blah._ Well it sure is for me, you little geek!"

"Lori, you need to cool your jets before you start something nasty here," Luna shot up, defending her brother from Lori's wrath.

"Cool my jets? What, is that one of your British slang terms, you _knockoff?_ "

"Um, Lori?" Lincoln squeaked, but was drowned out by Lori's continued rant.

" _Zip it_ , Lincoln! I don't know what's going on with us right now, and I sure as hell don't want to deal with anymore of this superpower nonsense! What if I get something that literally turns me into a monster? Or something worse? Do you know what that's like?" She continued raging, but the rest of the family sat there in silent awe at Lori. Not because she was angry but rather what was happening to their elder sister. Either she was ignoring it, or she was too engrossed in yelling at Lincoln to notice.

"Lori, you're-!"

"Not now Luna, not now! I am very stressed out at this point and don't need anyone on my butt this moment!" She yelled at the rock-star sister who shrank under her fury. Lori was just about done with today. All she wanted to do was hang out with her friends and now she was here trying to keep her sanity in check.

"But Lori-!" Leni tried to interfere, but with Lori's stress in high-gear and the constant interruptions Leni had unwillingly placed the straw that broke the camel's back.

"WHAT LENI?! What is so damn important that you keep getting on my nerves?! Just say it!" Lori yelled at her sister.

"You're growing."

Lori was not expecting that kind of answer from Leni, completely knocking out the anger inside of her for confusion instead.

"I-I'm what?" Lori fumbled out, and finally noticed what they had been seeing over the past couple moments of her rage. For her it seemed like everything had shrunk inside the house, but Lori realized that it wasn't the house that had grown smaller; she'd gotten bigger. _Much bigger._ She peered up and saw that the ceiling was barely an inch above her head, putting her at well over twelve feet tall, over twice as high as she was as a normal eighteen-year-old. Every step she took shook the living room floor. Lincoln, mystified as he was, only reached as high as her knees.

"Woah." Lola whistled.

"Guess you can say that Lori's now our biggest sister, quite literally!" Luan joked, and the siblings around her groaned.

"O-oh... oh my god..." Lori gasped as she witnessed what happened to her. "I'm giant! How is this-? What happened to me?!" She took a couple steps back in fright, nearly crushing the table underfoot. The siblings quickly made themselves scarce, backing themselves away from their now supersized sister. Lori quickly put her hands on the wall to stop herself from wrecking the room. Lincoln however was looking up with a shining smile.

"That must be your power Lori! You can make yourself become huge!" Lincoln shouted, excited as can be. Yet another one of his sisters had been gifted with a superpower, and this time it was something that he had never expected.

"Huh, gigantism. What a peculiar power," Lisa said, her eyes flashing white as she took a look inside of Lori's body. The eldest sister tried to cover herself up as best as possible from Lisa's vision, "It appears that your body's molecular structure has expanded, resulting in your increased size and mass. Though I wonder how big you can actually get, Lori. It's fascinating to think about."

"You call this fascinating? This is literally a horror show!" Lori shouted. "I can't go to school tomorrow like this! Oh god, what if it's permanent?! I'm gonna be stuck as some giant freak for the rest of my life!" Lori sobbed, crashing down to her knees as she sobbed into her hands. The sisters watched as Lori continued to loudly weep, believing that her life was now completely over.

It was Lincoln who came to her aid.

"Snap out of it Lori!" Lincoln shouted, getting his giant sister's attention as she stopped sobbing. He walked over and put his smaller hands into Lori's bigger ones, revealing her mascara-stained cheeks which ran wild with tears. "If I know anything about superpowers, there's always a way to change back."

Lori sniffed, "A-Are you sure?" She whimpered.

"I'm positive! I told Luan earlier that powers are often related to emotions, so you must have activated yours when you were... in your moment, sorta speaking." Lincoln explained.

"You mean when I was yelling at you." Lori said, attempting to wipe off the mascara from her cheeks. "I'm sorry about that Lincoln. I'm just literally scared out of my mind right now with what's happening to us."

"It's okay Lori. You're just being a responsible big sister." Lincoln replied.

"Yeah, I'd freak out too if something like this was happening to me," Luan warped over next to Lincoln and brandished her trademark smile, "Y'know, when it was just Lynn and I who had powers, I told her that our family would have our backs no matter what, and the same goes for you too, Lori. Us Louds stick together because we're family, superpowers or not."

"Yeah!" The other siblings cheered, and Lori felt her enlarged heart swell with joy. Leave it to her beloved family to assure her that things were never as bad as they seemed.

Lincoln continued, "So if you try to calm down, you should be able to reverse your power and shrink yourself down to normal size. Right Lisa?" Lincoln finished with a smile on his face. It seemed to be a good enough answer for Lori.

"That does seem like a plausible solution." Lisa responded. "Perhaps it might work."

"Alright, I can do this," Lori huffed out and stood to her full height, "Okay Lori, take some deep breaths, just like your yoga," She said to herself, closing her eyes as she imagined herself back to normal. She took a deep, long breath of air to settle her nerves. And just like Lincoln said, it was beginning to work. Slowly but surely Lori was scaling herself down to her regular height, her body coated with a faint blue shimmering energy. Lori opened her eyes and witnessed herself shrinking, feeling utmost relief that she could reverse growing over four meters tall right back down to her previous five-foot-ten.

"Oh thank goodness," Lori said, putting a hand over her thundering heart as she returned to normal. She'd had enough superpowers issues for a one day. But she still had a couple more questions to ask.

"So Lisa, you said that we're all going to get strange powers?"

"There is a high possibility, but we can't be sure." The little scientist answered truthfully, "The only thing that we can do now is wait and see what happens."

Lori let out a sigh, "Well, you heard her. Keep your eyes open. Who literally knows what else might go on today."

As the siblings dispersed back to whatever they were doing, Lincoln remained on the couch with his thoughts. With what was going on with his sisters getting powers, there was certainly a lot to think about. He'd seen this many times in his comics when people would suddenly develop powers and go on crazy adventures, but he never imagined that it would ever happen to him and his family. Minus the adventuring part, his family didn't do that very much.

Lincoln also knew that there was always trouble that followed when this happened. His comics taught him that as well. The only question was, once they had their powers, how long would it be until they found themselves in trouble or when the trouble found them.

Lincoln got the feeling that he might find out soon.


	7. Chapter 6

**Hi readers, sorry for taking so long. Real life happens, with jobs and classes and other stuff.**

 **I went back to edit parts in previous chapters that I felt were better for the story's narrative and progression, so check out the new changes if you want.**

* * *

Chapter VI: Sea Change

"Did you hear what Lisa said? We could have superpowers! Isn't that awesome, Lola?" Lana was practically bouncing on the balls of her feet as she followed her younger twin up the stairs. The tomboy was giddy at the thought of wielding something straight out of a comic book. Lisa's revelations that there was a possibility that they would all receive powers, and Lori giving the example with her size ability, excited the tomboy. The rest of her family had already showed off their powers, so her turn to gain some sort of ability might just be around the corner. Her mind was brimming with every sort of power she could think of that might be the one she had buried inside of her, waiting to be let out. Considering what her siblings could do, like Lisa, Lori and even Lynn, it could be _anything._

The currently powerless twins had very different moods. While Lana was ecstatic, Lola was indifferent. Almost uncaring, really. The pageant princess might be curious about the situation her family was currently in, but that was the extent of her interest. Truthfully she didn't care. If she even had a superpower in the case that Lisa was right, Lola doubted that she would want to become a superhero like some of her siblings wanted.

"Yeah, yeah. I heard her." Lola said with a flick of the wrist. She opened the door to their room and went straight to her bed to lie down and play with her dollies while Lana went over to her bookshelf, where lay a small, tattered ring notebook. She flipped open to a page that wasn't littered with drawings or feeding schedules and immediately began writing stuff down.

"Let's see here. Gotta find something that'll let me know if I've got powers or not. Maybe a couple tests to try and find out." Lana reasoned to herself. She scribbled her thoughts down as fast as they came to her. Surely there had to be a way to know. Lana wasn't going to wait to see if it happened. The tomboy was far too excited to let this opportunity slide. Lana had always been a creative and very curious girl, and now with this dilemma that her sisters and brother were facing, it was returning full-force. As she wrote things down, she noticed out of the corner of her eyes that Lola didn't share her excitement, which befuddled the young mechanic.

"Lola!"

"What?" She put down the doll in her hands to face her twin.

"Why aren't you excited? We could have powers! Real-life superhero stuff!" Lana said back. She couldn't understand why Lola was acting so dismissive.

"I know, and honestly I really don't care." Lola said, stunning Lana. At first the little tomboy was speechless. Lola was infamous for being a total gloryhound, so her being so calm and apathetic about their newfound family issue was both surprising and even a little angering. What kind of six-year-old _didn't_ want superpowers? Apparently Lola was one such person. Lana mentally sucked in her annoyance, not wanting to get into another fight with her twin, but it was difficult.

"How can you _not care?_ Superheroes get fame! Fortune! Don't you want any of that?" Lana asked, attempting to get Lola to see some light.

"Uh, because we probably _won't_ get powers? Hello? Besides, didn't you hear what Lisa _and_ Luna said? Even if we did, what could we do with them? You've seen those movies, right? Never ever turns out well for those guys, and I for one am sure that neither of us have one." Lola responded, not bothering to hide her posh tone. Her younger and older siblings had told Lola everything she needed to know down on this subject. For some odd reason if she was going to have some sort of power like her siblings, she'd never be able to live a normal life again. So really she was looking at it from a realistic point of view, though it only made Lana even more infuriated. Her twin just had to be a naysayer when it came to the cool stuff. And right now she was essentially telling her that her heroic dreams were pretty much impossible. But Lola decided to go on, this time getting a bit too into her own opinion.

"Besides, even if we did what kind of stupid superpower would you get, anyway?" She mockingly asked, to which Lana's head shot up. A scowl etched on the tomboy's face as she heard Lola essentially diss her.

"Hey, my powers would be totally awesome!" Lana argued back, getting defensive.

"Pft, yeah right they would," Lola waved off with a flick of her wrist, and went right back to testing Lana's patience, "I think my dear, deluded twin might be dreaming a _little_ too hard. Might wanna tone it down a bit, sister."

"Oh yeah? Well, just you wait Lola! I'm gonna find out what _my_ superpower is, and you won't! You're gonna be wishing you had powers as cool as mine!" Lana pointed a finger at her twin, now completely tossing patience out the window. The tomboy was angry. Scratch that, she was pretty much incensed by this point. It wasn't hard for the twins to start fighting, even if it was over the concept of gaining powers.

Yet Lola remained utterly indifferent. Normally this would have devolved into a shouting match between them, but not today. Perhaps the strange events that were intermingling with the family had changed more than they thought.

"Oh yeah? I doubt it. Lynn and Luan have cool powers, but I think that there's always room for a _dud_. So go on, Lana. Go find out what silly power you'll have and then you can brag all you want. Just don't say I didn't warn you." Lola waved off her twin's words as she went back to pampering, which only fueled Lana's anger. The tomboy grit her teeth, feeling the steam billowing out of her ears. She couldn't take it anymore. The excitement she wanted to share with her twin was getting shot down before her eyes. If Lola was going to keep being a doubter, then she would do it herself.

"Fine then! I will!" Lana shouted, stomping out of the room and slamming the door behind her. Her twin could hear her little feet trudge across the carpet outside straight to the end of the hall. Once she was gone, however, Lola smiled at her reflection.

"She makes it so easy."

Meanwhile Lana had retreated to the bathroom, fuming as her sister's words rang over and over in her head. The notebook in her hands was nearly snapped in two as she entered the bathroom, slamming the door behind her and locking it for some sense of privacy. In her fit she tossed the notebook aside, no longer caring if it got damaged as it clattered on the ground along with the pencil it held in its rings. Lana then took a seat on the toilet, scowling at the floor below as if it had an answer she wanted. But what Lana really wanted was proof that she wasn't an outlier, or perhaps being cursed with a power she would hate, like Lola was talking about. Her sisters had powers, why didn't she?

 _Lola was saying nonsense. Of course I'll get a super cool power like my sisters._ Lana mentally said, putting her head in her hands as she continued to mentally assure herself. _I mean, look at Lori! She can grow into a giant now. And Lynn's got that fire-heat stuff. Who's to say I wont't have one?_

But there was a small part of her mind that wondered if her twin was right. Dare she try to tempt it, and only be disappointed in the end? Lola could be foretelling the future after all, or maybe that we her power and she didn't know. Either way the sensation of doubt had the tomboy locked in a struggle. She walked over to the sink and wedged out the booster step so she could see herself in the mirror. Her reflection hardened as she steeled herself and her nerves, knowing what she was going to do. Now wasn't the time for doubting, it was the time for _action!_

"I'll find out what my powers are, and before mom and dad get back." She said, tucking in her fists in anticipation.

Lana would have gotten started on something, but a misstep down the booster caused her to slip and bruise her hand on the sink. Lana hissed in pain as a red welt swelled along her pointer finger, noticing that the tip had turned bright red. The little tomboy let out an exasperated sigh, not wanting to let this get to her. Unlike Lola. Luckily she knew how to deal with it. Lana hopped back up on the booster steps and turned the faucet on.

Only nothing came out, besides a tiny squeak from the pipe. She did it again, but got the same results. Now she was getting a little peeved.

"Oh for goodness sake's," Lana rolled her eyes and darted her vision to the underside of the sink, but found nothing wrong. No leaks or cracks. And there were definitely no clogs either. She'd checked this morning before the superpower thing became today's big deal. With this phantom problem along with her finger and her argument with Lola, Lana's temper finally blew over.

"Alright, cut the crud!" Lana poured some frustration and kicked the pipes with some force, hoping that some concussive maintenance would do the trick. "Stupid, lousy, no-good piece of shi-"

Before she could let a slur slip from her lips, Lana heard the pipes begin to rumble. At first she'd thought that her beating the pipes had gotten them to start working again, but something in her mind was telling her that this was another thing entirely. She took a couple steps back when the sink began to shake, slowly growing ever more violent. Lana could feel the pipes rattling from beneath her feet as well. As soon as it seemed like it was about to burst, it stopped, leaving Lana both confused and a little disappointed that it lead up to nothing.

She let out a sigh and walked back over to the sink.

"So much for that." Lana said and turned the faucet back on.

The thing that Lana wasn't expecting was for it to suddenly pop off like a bottle cork and unleash a torrential geyser of cold water, drenching her and the bathroom under a heavy spray. The surprise of the event was strong enough to send Lana onto her back, watching as the broken faucet spewed gallons all over the room.

"What the heck?!" Lana cried out, standing up to try and find the faucet cap and stop the bathroom from becoming more flooded.

And then something else happened; _the water followed her._

The tomboy could only watch in utter fascination and shock as a swirling vortex surrounded her small body, quickly accumulating more and more of the water than was still cascading from the broken sink. Speaking of which, it was no longer spraying all over the room but rather changed its form to a floating stream that curved downwards to the floor from the pipe itself, forming a circular puddle that swirled around the young Loud girl in an ever-growing spout.

It quickly formed around her waist as it gained more volume, creating a sheen of water that steadily grew faster and faster, until it started to lift her upwards towards the ceiling like a rising pedestal. The howling wind of the water blew Lana's trusty hat off her head onto the floor, but right now the tomboy was too occupied to care. As she began to rise up being carried by the water spout that had formed around her, Lana realized just what was happening to her, why the water was acting like this. She reached out instinctively and snatched a handful, and saw that the droplets she held were hanging in the air inside her palm. It didn't take her long to put it together. This was what she had been searching for, what she was looking for: _she'd found her power._

She couldn't stop herself from making a big, bright smile.

"I... I have powers! I HAVE POWERS!" Lana cheered, putting her fists in the air in pure celebration! "I KNEW IT! HA HA! Take that, Lola! I knew I had one!"

 _BANG BANG BANG!_

"Lana, are you done in there? I have to tinkle!" That was Lola banging on the door, and Lana realized that she was still hovering in the air thanks to the spout she'd inadvertently created. With her powers. The one that Lola said she'd never have or totally hate.

 _Perfect._

"Oh yes, I'm quite done my dearest twin!" Lana replied ever so sweetly to her twin, "Just hold a second, just gotta unlock the door."

"Well, hurry up! You've been in there long enough!" Lola yelled. "And what's that gushing sound? Don't tell me you clogged the toilet again!"

"Nope!" Lana replied as the spout lowered her to the doorknob and unlocked it, and then immediately rose back up. "Come on in!"

The tomboy couldn't help but nearly squeal in excitement. Proving her sister wrong was going to be so sweet!

From outside, Lola couldn't help but narrow her eyes and wonder what her twin wanted. Sure, she and Lana got into another argument over the whole superpower thing that was taking over their family, but Lana was never one to act suspicious. The pageant princess knew that there was something going on with her sisters and brother. Could Lana be affected as well? She certainly hoped not as she opened the door to the bathroom. Yet there was a part of her that did wonder if Lana would join her sisters in having powers, thinking about her words from earlier and ponder if she had been a bit too harsh.

"Okay Lana, if you're going to make me feel bad for making fun of you earlier for saying you don't have a superpower, you better have something to prove it..." Lola started out strong, but sputtered down when she saw her twin hovering above the ground in a miniature storm. The wind and moisture hit her first, and then the scene of Lana standing atop a water spout. Lola's mouth hung open in disbelief that Lana had, in fact, proved it.

"See Lola! I _told you_ that I had a power!" Lana bragged and pointed at her sister, but in her excitement she had unknowingly sent a control to her spout to follow her finger, causing it to start spinning erratically and lurch around the room like an out-of-control fire hose with Lana at the mouth. Lola covered her face from getting sprayed and watched as Lana was swept up in her own storm.

"What the heck is happening!" Lana cried out as she was flung back and forth in the spout to her sister's horror.

"Lana, what are you doing?!" Lola shrieked, ducking under a stream that hit the carpet behind her. "Control your stupid power! You're getting water all over the bathroom! Mommy and daddy are gonna kill you!"

"I-I'm trying to stop it from spraying everywhere!" Lana tried to balance herself, wiggling her arms back and forth as she tried to regain some control, but to no avail. It only served to further fuel the watery deluge, covering the walls, floor and ceiling. Lola watched as it suddenly morphed into a literal wave and careened straight towards her like a missile. Lola stood there and watched as the watery wall of pain prepared to drown her in her own house of all places, rearing up like a fist ready to strike. There was no time to evade at all.

"Look out, Lola!" Lana yelled as she was being helplessly carried with the wave.

In that moment, Lola instinctively shot her hands out to protect herself, crying out as she did. It was here that something came to Lola's rescue. For a few seconds, as if in slow motion, Lana saw what looked like a soft blue-white glow coming out from her sister's palms. And then...

 ** _KKKRRRSSSSHHHKK!_**

Silence.

No splash, no roaring water, not even a drop.

Lola stood still, bracing herself. After a few moments of heart-pounding terror, she realized that nothing had come. Her eyes were still clenched shut when she felt something land on the tip of her nose. It was small and cold. Very cold. She opened her eyes and plucked off whatever it was, and to her amazement it was none other than a tiny, intricate snowflake about the size of her fingernail.

"H-Hey L-Lola?"

She turned back after hearing her sister's strangely stammering voice, only to let out a sharp gasp at what had happened.

The water that had once threatened to pound her had been _frozen solid._ The wave had turned into an icy shelf with the very tip of its icicle cusp pointed right at her, and that wasn't all. A small shower of snowflakes like the one in her fingers fluttered down from the ceiling above in the bathroom, coating the room in a thin layer of snow. Lana, stuck in the frozen wave, was practically turning blue with her hair, clothes and lips smothered in ice.

"C-C-Could y-y-you m-mind g-getting m-m-m-me o-out?" She asked between her chattering teeth.

Lola balked. Surely she didn't do this, right? Yet when she went to reach out to help her twin out of the ice, Lola saw to her shock that her arms were emanating a faint icy glow from beneath her gloves, along with a bitter chill coming from inside her body. She barely got a word out before she heard someone stomping up the stairs.

"Alright, could someone tell me-?" The sound of Lori's voice yelling from the staircase sounded off, and the twins turned to see their eldest standing there mouth agape at the frozen bathroom, a mound of ice, and a pair of newly-powered sisters looking at her like they were caught. Lori couldn't help but let out a groan and slap her forehead in disbelief.

"Oh my god, really?"

...

"So what's the diagnosis, Lisa?" Lincoln asked.

It didn't take long for the house to get the news that Lola and Lana had newfound powers. When everyone came to see what happened, their reactions were varied. Lincoln, of course, was ecstatic. They all wanted to know what was going on with the twins but only after they helped out Lana from freezing to death. Lynn had been most helpful and used her heat to melt Lana out of her icy prison. Speaking of the two, Lana was currently huddled in a blanket on Lynn's lap, with the older sister using her powers to help Lana warm up after nearly getting turned into a human Popsicle. Lola sat next to them, silent as can be. The little princess hadn't said a word since what happened, though it didn't help that there was a thermometer in her mouth.

Lisa was currently investigating a piece of ice that Lola had created. Using her own powers, Lisa was able to get a complete scan of the fragment, peering into the crystalline formation to see if there was any signs with a series of lime-green laser lights moving back and forth from her glasses. After a while, Lisa stepped off her stool and faced her siblings.

"It appears that our sisters have gained their superhuman abilities like most of us in this house, though more rudimentary than others. Lana has the powers of _hydrokinesis,_ or the ability to manipulate the liquid form of H2O. Quite an interesting power, though very destructive if used wrong." Lisa explained.

"Yeah, if the bathroom had anything to say about it." Lynn added, standing up after putting Lana down on the bench.

"I said I was sorry!" Lana cried out, still feeling a little guilty after her powers nearly wrecked the bathroom.

"Moving on from there," Lisa continued, "While Lana has the powers to control water in its liquid state, Lola has manipulation over ice. Meaning, her ability to freeze and control the solid from of H2O, known as _cryokinesis._ Once again, I thank you for lending me your expansive comic library, Lincoln. Makes the terminology for said powers far easier." Lisa said, gesturing towards the pile of comic books at the foot of her desk.

"No problem. So Lana has water and Lola has ice?" Lincoln wondered with a thought. "Kinda cool that they're both water-related."

"Literally, in terms for Lola!" Luan popped in, half her body protruding through a yellow portal in the wall, "Check it out! I've been testing to see what I can do with my power and it turns out I can pop into places all over the house! Neat, huh? Anyway, how's our most recent additions to the superpower club?"

"Still kinda cold," Lana said, still in her blanket but no longer in Lynn's lap. The tomboy had walked out moments ago. "But I'll be okay."

Lola merely shrugged.

"After you two, this means that it only leaves Lincoln, Luna and potentially Lily to receive their powers, as utterly insane as that sounds. The absurd circumstances never ceases to stop on this day." Lisa said, plucking the thermometer from Lola's mouth, "I'll continue my research with this ice piece. Meanwhile I suggest you follow our sibling's methods and contain yourselves as best as you can and learn to control your newfound abilities."

Both of the twins nodded, following Lincoln as they left their sister's room. Lincoln eagerly went back to his own, excitedly running past his sisters so he can drown himself in more comic literature. He seemed to get even more chipper as the day went on, or seeing his sisters develop more and more powers. Lola and Lana however went back to their room without saying a word, the pageant princess leading the two of them. Lana closed the door behind her and saw her sister plop herself on her bed, staring into the floor. Lana, still feeling a little giddy, scooched over right next to her.

"Well?" The tomboy asked, which got Lola's attention.

"Well what?" Lola responded.

"What do you say?" Lana wiggled her eyebrows to her twin. It didn't take Lola that long to realize what the tomboy was hinting at. With a short, suppressed groan and a pinch to her brow, Lola answered her sister.

"Okay, fine. I'm sorry that I said you wouldn't get powers."

"And?" Lana said, obviously enjoying the spectacle of having Lola apologizing to her, a rare occasion indeed. A big, dopey smile was on her face as Lola kept talking.

"And for making fun of you."

"Go on." Lana playfully fluttered her eyelashes, and Lola for the time being kept her temper in check just to appease her sister.

"And that I was wrong for saying those things earlier and nearly turning you into an icicle. There, you happy now?" Lola huffed out, only to be surprised when Lana hugged her. It certainly caught the princess off-guard. She hadn't expected her twin to embrace her for whatever reason, but Lola swiftly found it welcoming to this day. She probably needed it after what happened.

"See? I told you we'd both get powers." Lana said, letting go of her twin.

"Yep. That you did." Lola replied plainly, but with a hint of good humor.

"Oh don't you give me that 'tude from earlier, Lols. I _know_ for a fact you like your power." Lana playfully argued, pointing a finger at her twin. There was no way Lola was keeping up that mood. At first Lola didn't bother responding all while murmuring to herself, but she couldn't help but crack a grin as she thought it over.

"Yeah, I guess it is pretty cool."

"Hey, don't let Luan hear you. She'll warp in here and start making more ice jokes." Lana laughed, and Lola joined her soon after. The twins had quite a long day, but this little moment between the two of them allowed a moment of comfort, knowing deep down that they were still the same even with their powers.

"Thank you, Lana. I needed that." Lola said.

"No problem. Say, you wanna watch the _Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse_ movie I got downstairs?" Lana asked, hopping off the bed. "It's on Blu-Ray. We can watch on Lori's Xbox."

"Eh, why not?" Lola replied, and followed her twin out the door.


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter VII: Thunderstruck

As the the day slowly crawled on, and the house somehow remaining quiet, some were taking in the uncommon silence with grace. In her room Luna Loud calmly strung her electric guitar, not bothering to play any actual melodies. She was just absentminded over what was happening to her siblings. The events that occurred on this day were playing in her head like a film roll. Her family, the people she cherished more than anything, were succumbing to a change unlike anything she'd expected. It was like something straight out of a science fiction movie.

Her sisters had powers. Well, almost all of her sisters. She and Lily and with their brother were still technically normal but that word would soon have a new definition in this house. Luna was honestly intrigued of getting a superpower like her siblings, in fact she was fully expecting herself to get one soon considering she was one of the remaining who still didn't. The young rock star in the meantime was using her music to keep herself calm in the midst of this newfound dilemma that her family faced. She had already called her friends to cancel practice tonight in the garage, much to Sam's disappointment, but Luna knew that it was a smart decision. She'd merely used the outside rain as her excuse. For now it was just enjoying the brief moment of tranquility while it lasted.

"Hey Luna!"

So much for that as her sister appeared before her in a flash of yellow light. Luna didn't know whether to be surprised or not that she was getting used to it already.

"'Sup Luan," Luna stopped strumming to speak to the warping comedian, "How's the house going on? Everyone still kicking?"

"Everyone's alright for now," She responded, and listed what was currently happening with her fingers, "So far, Lola and Lana are downstairs watching a movie, Lincoln's in his room drowning himself in his comics, no doubt trying to find out what power he might have. Lori's still talking to her friends and attempting to be rational without going into another panic attack, and Lisa's running some more experiments in her room. Everyone else is doing their normal routines."

"So," Luna said, "kind of like how things are usually in this house."

"Yeah, pretty much." Luan shrugged and walked over to her desk and sat down at her desk. She turned her swivel chair to face her sister and asked her, "Though how are you holding up, Luna? This whole situation we're in right now is pretty out of this world."

"Yeah, no kiddin' dude. I'm fine, by the way. Just keeping myself busy and thinking about what kind of power I'll get. Maybe I'll get something that makes me shoot lightning from my hands, or something like that." Luna admitted, keeping it real with her prankster sister. Luna had learned to share her moments with Luan ever since they became roommates, and the years had forged a powerful bond between the two. After hearing what Luna said, Luan walked over to her sister's side and put a hand on her shoulder as she sat down next to her.

"I guess you're kinda anxious about what power you'll get, huh?" Luan said. "I can tell. You're more _strummed out_ than normal."

"Yeah, pretty much. I mean, it sounds radical to have a superpower, don't get me wrong, but we saw what Lana and Lola did. What if I get something worse than that? Something that could wind up doing something really bad." Luna wondered. While she was excited to potentially wield something out of an action comic, it still worried her that it might end up doing more harm than good. The thought of wielding something she couldn't control and getting people hurt weighed heavily on her mind.

"I get that you're worried that you'll hurt someone Luna, but you remember what Lincoln said. As long as we keep ourselves calm and learn to control our powers, we have nothing to fear." Luan responded, making sure she made her point by putting a hand on her sister's shoulder for comfort.

Luna let out a sigh.

"Yeah, I guess I'm just overthinking things again. Force of habit. Sorry about that, Luan."

"Hey, I don't blame you. You don't need to apologize, you're just looking out for everyone. That's what makes you _you!_ And you never know! You could get something totally awesome, like my power!" Luan demonstrated by vanishing again, and returning with a pop-tart package in her hand moments later. "See? You could always try to figure out if you've got one while we're pretty much in house lockdown."

"How would I do that?"

"I wish I could tell you, but I honestly don't know. Seems like you're going to have to find out yourself. Later!" Luan warped away, leaving Luna alone in her room again.

"Find out my own power, huh?" Luna scratched her chin as she gave it some thought. Surely there was some reasoning behind Luan's words. She wasn't familiar with the whole aspect of superpowers outside of the Marvel movies that she and her friends would go see. But Luan did have a point. She might as well try to find out while they were on Lori's lockdown. Thinking of such stuff reminded her of Lincoln and his hobbies, which suddenly sparked an idea in her head.

"Now, if I were Lincoln, what would I do?" Luna wondered out loud, strumming her guitar. "Better yet, maybe he can help me out."

 _KRA-THOOM!_

Luna practically jumped out of her skin when a sudden crash exploded from one of her sister's rooms. It was loud enough to rattle the entire house. And by the sounds of things, it was Lynn and Lucy.

"Dammit Lucy!"

"Lynn, I am so sorry."

Luna went out to see what the commotion was, and left her room to take a trip to her younger sister's. She wasn't alone as Lincoln, Leni and Lisa were there too, watching the events unfold in front of them as the goth and jock got into another argument. Lynn was standing dead-center of the room, dressed up as a hockey goalie while Lucy was on her bed surrounded by open books and candles. From the looks of things, and the brand-new scorch mark on the ceiling, Lucy must have been testing her powers.

"You made me incinerate my hockey stick you Sith lord wannabe!" In Lynn's hands was said burnt-up hockey equipment, now little more than kindling. The charred wooden tool sprinkled ash as Lynn shook it in her hands in frustration.

"Alright, what's going on here?" Lori marched on in, her sisters and brother giving her space as she became the house tyrant again.

"Lucy spooked me with that dumb magic of her's and I burned my favorite hockey stick!" Lynn tossed the ruined equipment on the floor.

"I didn't mean to. I was attempting to cast a different spell but got distracted by Lynn hitting her puck across the room. _Again._ " Lucy pointed to the dents in the wall as she gave her side of the story to her elder sister, who pinched her nose in frustration. Lori wasn't having any of this today, and was certainly not in the mood for their arguments.

"Okay, that's it! No more sports," she pointed at Lynn, "and no more spells," and then at Lucy, "for either of you! Learn to control yourselves and your powers by doing something else that doesn't threaten to literally destroy the house! Okay?" Lori crossed her arms, feeling the mounting frustration starting to build up from keeping her siblings in line.

"Sure." Lucy responded as she closed her books.

"Fine. Whatever you say, _Mount Lori_ ," Lynn mumbled to herself a little too loud, and felt a shadow cast over her along with two stomps that shook the room. It was Lori, who had decided to use her own power to make herself ten feet tall as she quite literally _loomed_ over her sporty sister, face etched in a deep, powerful scowl. Lynn gulped, cursing her big mouth.

"You wanna say that again, _candlestick?_ " Lori boomed with her enhanced voice thanks to bigger lungs.

"Nope! I'm good!" Lynn squeaked as she quickly smiled up to her big sister to avoid her wrath.

"Smart girl," Lori shrunk herself down to her normal height and left the room, "Now I literally don't want to hear anything else today! So keep. It. Down!" And with that announced she marched back to her room with Leni in tow, and slammed the door behind her.

"Looks like our eldest sister has already accomplished a good amount of control over her own ability," Lisa said as she giddily wrote down what she saw on a notepad, including Lynn and Lucy's newest incident and retreated back to her own room, "Quite interesting. Oh, I just can't wait to see just what else we can do with these things! Such fascinating days are ahead of me!"

Lincoln himself was about to turn around and return to his comic horde to get more reading done. Luna saw that her brother was right there, and there was no better timing for her to ask than now.

"Hey Lincoln?" The white-haired boy heard his rockstar sister call his name, "You mind helpin' a big sister out?"

"Sure Luna, what's up?" Lincoln asked.

"I was talking to Luan earlier about finding out what kind of power I might have, and it kinda got me thinking. You're the family's big comic fanatic, think you can give a hand?" She asked. Luna knew that Lincoln had a massive expanse of knowledge regarding comics and other related stuff, so he was bound to know something that could help her out. If she really wanted to get some in-depth smarts about what kind of hidden superpower she might have, then her brother was the best person to talk to. For Lincoln, this was something he'd wanted to do since these things started happening. His sisters asking for help on superpowers? That was a chance that he wouldn't miss for the world.

For Luna, she watched as Lincoln let out a huge gasp, his eyes growing huge and twinkling.

"Would I?" Lincoln cried out, giddy as can be. He raced back to his room and came out almost immediately with a strong kick to his door and with a massive stack of comic books in his hands, "Let's get started, Luna!"

"Sweet."

...

"Alright, that didn't work out. Maybe we can try another way?"

"Forget it dude. Whatever my power might be Lincoln, it's trying really hard to keep itself hidden."

Any sort of revelation that Luna was hoping for when she brought Lincoln to the game had disappeared. For the past half an hour or so they had tried every idea that Lincoln could pull from his comic books, and even with the countless examples that they offered the two siblings still couldn't bring out whatever power that lay inside of Luna. The rockstar was beginning to feel a little hopeless at this point. She was certain that if it didn't come out now, it was only going to reveal itself when it wanted to, and that could be at any time. The thought of her body suddenly showing off her superpower in front of her friends, her parents, or worst case scenario her _girlfriend_ did not resonate well with Luna Loud. Who knows what kind of disaster would follow.

It also didn't help that she had fully expected to gain her power when she asked for her brother's help. Luna had been excited to have a secret superpower, but it seemed like fate didn't seem to share her disposition. Or perhaps she was a dud, the one without powers.

But Lincoln still remained optimistic, probably because he both hated seeing his sister so despondent over something that he felt so passionate for, and feeling like he didn't want to let his big sister down. The white-haired boy frowned at the sight of Luna laying on her bed, comics strewn all around her as she stared up at the ceiling. He walked on over to her, putting down his copy of _Justice League of America_ on her dresser and clambered over to Luna, sitting down right beside her head.

A quick gaze to his face showed that he still wore a buck-toothed smile, but Luna wasn't in a very cheery mood.

"C'mon Luna, we can't give up now! We're so close! I can feel it!" He said to her, and Luna huffed out her nose.

"You said that before we attempted to pull a He-Man pose, Linc." Luna said back, still remembering that stupid shout her brother told her to say.

"But it could have been the one! We have to keep trying!" Lincoln shook his sister's shoulders, but Luna was unconvinced.

"Look Lincoln, I get that you're excited about your fam getting superpowers, but we've been at this and haven't proved anything."

"Luna-!" Lincoln whined, but his sister was quick on the draw.

"Bro, I'm done. Let's face the music here, Lincoln. We've tried everything we could to see what kind of power I got, and so far I've got nothing." Luna responded, looking as dejected as she sounded. She sat back up, sitting on the edge of her bed as she turned to face her brother. "Thanks for the help little dude, but right now I think I'm done for the day. Sorry for buggin' ya."

Lincoln frowned, realizing that Luna had pretty much thrown in the towel. As much as he hated it, he knew that Luna could only go on for so long without any results before she would eventually call it quits. And he honestly didn't blame her. He could only imagine how disheartened she felt.

He proceeded to gather his comics up and walk out the door with them in hand, but not before he turned around to face his sister.

"Hey Luna, just so you know, I'm always here if you want me to. Catch you later." He solemnly said, and left her room closing the door behind him. Luna let out a sigh and leaned over to grab her guitar when she spied something strange on her cabinet. It was one of Lincoln's comics. He must have accidentally left it behind.

It was an edition of _Thor,_ the cover art showing the Asgardian prince flying through the skies. The cover art was drawn really well with lots of vivid colors.

"Huh. Lincoln must've forgot this one." The young rock star said, and compelled by her curiosity and recently reading comic books with Lincoln, she picked it up and began to flip through the pages.

The moment she began reading Luna realized just how Lincoln and his friends were so engrossed with comic literature. It was filled to the brim with cheesy action and quotable heroics. Some pages she got a laugh out of, and others that made her internally cheer. There was one scene, however, that really got her attention. In it Thor had lost his hammer to a terrible foe, but against the odds he still continued to fight on without it and emerged victorious with a mighty punch. Thanks to Lincoln showing just how vast the world of comic books really was she had slowly grown to like this sort of entertainment, and now here she was, reading a comic book for fun just like her little brother. She chuckled, imagining herself as Thor in battle wielding incredible powers and battling terrible foes. God of Thunder, indeed. But that title didn't stand for Luna.

" _Goddess_ of Thunder. Now that's more like it." Luna mumbled to herself, now in a better mood as she put the comic book down and reached over towards her guitar. Maybe some R'n'R with some comics was just what she needed.

She wasn't expecting her imagination to become reality when _small arcs of lightning_ danced between her fingers and the brass strings, crackling in the open air for a brief, stunning moment. Luna let out a gasp, instantly retracting her hand in surprise. Slowly she gazed down to her hand, and in it were roiling coils of bright white lightning dancing on her palm. To her shock, it wasn't hurting her in the slightest. And had she noticed from the mirror there were also thin volts of the same lightning beaming from the sides of her eyes.

Luna knew exactly what was going on. She couldn't help herself but let out a laugh that held both relief and astonishment.

"Holy smokes," Luna excitedly said, "T-This is it! Ha ha! I've got one! Looks like I'm joining the powered-up sister club!" She stood up to get a better look at her powers. The same thing was going on with her other hand, and when she put them close together they made bigger volts that arced along her arms like a power line. As she was admiring her newfound powers, she heard a knock on the door.

"Hey Luna?" It was Luan, surprisingly, and she sounded slightly morose, "I passed by Lincoln a while ago, said you were feeling kinda down. Mind if I come in?"

"Sure thing!" Luna responded, but then got another idea. "Wait, could you get Lincoln for me? I wanna tell him something." _Like how his idea actually kind of worked._

"Alright, one sec." Luan said back, unknowingly leaving the excited Luna to prepare revealing herself to her bro, who would no doubt be awestruck to see his sister. Luna couldn't help but let out a giggle, hiding her mouth behind her hands as she decided to make it a surprise. She willed her power off, and the electrical bolts dissipated. And just in time as the door opened and in came Lincoln followed by Luan. The young lad was taken back by seeing his sister acting so vibrant since the last time he was in here she was rather morose.

"Luna?" Lincoln asked, wondering about her mood change, "Are you okay?"

"Little bro, you have no idea!" Luna responded, leaning down to her brother, "Check this out!"

She thrust her arms out, hoping to show off her powers and 'wow' her brother and sister. Their faces would have been priceless.

Instead, nothing happened. No volts, no static, no sign of what she believed what was finally her power revealing itself.

"W-What?" Luna practically whimpered, and she tried again. Still nothing. Her mood and face instantly fell. Had she done something wrong, or was it just a figment of her imagination. Lincoln and Luan watched with confusion as Luna frantically shook her arms and shouted with fury. "Oh, come on! It was just there a second ago! Why the hell aren't you working?!"

"Um, Luna? What's not working?" Lincoln asked, wondering what Luna was trying to do with her arms.

"My powers, dude! I've got one!" Luna responded, and the two of them were certainly surprised especially Lincoln. Luna pointed towards the comic book on her bed, the copy of _Thor_ that Lincoln had accidentally left in her room before her powers revealed itself. "I was reading your comic book earlier before you two came in, and then there it was! I had lightning dancing all over my hands, but now I can't get it work!"

Luan scratched her chin, both she and her brother taking a look at Luna's arms. Nothing out of the ordinary.

"I don't see anything Luna." Lincoln said.

"As _electrifying_ as that sounds, perhaps you were just imagining things." Luan reasoned, and Luna gaped at her sister. "I can attest to that. The first night when I got my power with Lynn, I thought I was daydreaming. Maybe you're doing the same thing."

"What?! No way dude, I swear it was right there-!"

"Look Luna, I know you feel bad for believing you wasted my time with comic books, but you don't have to try and make something up to make me feel better." Lincoln said. In all honesty he was glad to have shown Luna his huge comic collection. It was small amount of bonding between siblings. Speaking of which, Lincoln made his way over to pick up his lost piece of literature. "You were reading _Thor_? I knew you were a Marvel fan."

"I'm telling you dudes, I'm not making this up!" Luna was now on the verge of freaking out. It was bad enough that her power was now playing dead, but now her siblings were acting like she was crazy. Of course this would happen to her, she gets her powers after all this time and then all of a sudden it doesn't function when her siblings are nearby, making it seem like she was crying wolf. It made her want to take her guitar to a wall.

"Maybe we can get Lisa." Luan said. "She's got that supervision of her's, doesn't she? Maybe she can take a peek inside and see what's up."

 _Lisa! Of course!_ Luna immediately got a sense of excitement. Her super-smart little sister would definitely prove her right!

"Hang on, I'll get her!" Luna shouted, aiming to prove that she hadn't been lying. If there was anyone to prove that she wasn't insane, it was Lisa.

"Wait a second Luna, Lori said we-!" Luan said, trying to stop her sister from being a victim of Lori's wrath. But instead Luna ignored her and went straight forward. She could deal with Lori. After all she had powers now, and she was going to prove it!

Turns out she didn't have to. One step was all she took. A single bound towards the door. In that moment, as if in slow-motion, Luna's legs suddenly began to shoot out small electrical bolts, glowing their bright white and crackling with energy. Lincoln and Luan barely had time to react when Luna became a purple blur shooting across the room, diving out of the way as their rockstar sister inadvertently became a supersonic bulldozer. The gust of air that followed her momentarily made them shield their vision as the sounds of splintering wood and plaster followed, and putting down their arms revealed that Luna had plowed through the door in front of her, continuing on to the wall on the other side of the hallway and leaving behind human-shaped holes.

Luna, lying upside-down with her rear planted against the wall and floured with dust, lay dazed on a small pile of rubble in Lori and Leni's room. The two of them looked down in complete surprise. They had been minding their own business when Luna literally crashed into their abode. Lori had been trying to use her power to fit into her XXL sweaters while Leni was reading about ancient sculptures from a book given to her from Lisa. Neither of them had expected this rather unexpected visit.

Lincoln and Luan peeked through the hole in the door to where they could see Luna lying there, both of their minds thinking the same thing.

 _Looks like she wasn't lying._

"Holy crap Luna!" Lori cried out. She hurried over and knelt down to check on her younger sister right as Lincoln and Luan entered the room, both of them still in disbelief at what happened.

"Did you see that?" Lincoln asked, shock in his voice.

"How could I not see that?" Luan said back as she made her way over to her roommate and knelt down next to her. Luna's dizzy, wide eyes looked right back up. Luan asked a simple question while putting a hand in front of her to test how bad Luna clobbered herself with a wall. "How many fingers am I holding up Luna?"

" _Ehhh... Hmm..._ " Luna tried to focus her quadruple-vision on one of the Luans spinning in front of her, and managed to say, "Eight?"

Luan currently held two fingers, her pointer and middle, which made sure when she counted with her own eyes.

"What happened?" Lori demanded, righteously annoyed with their siblings entering her room unannounced and also wrecking her door.

"I don't know! She just... fwoosh! Right out the door!" Lincoln replied as stumped as could be.

A couple moments passed before anyone spoke up again.

"Lisa?"

"Lisa."

...

"How are you feeling Luna? Any better?"

"Other than I felt like I put my head through a wall, which I actually did? Peachy, sis. Just peachy."

"Just asking, Luna." Luan said to her cranky sister as she sat down next to her. Luna was currently resting on Lisa's bed with an ice pack on her forehead along with some band-aids to help ease the bruising.

It didn't take long for the rest of the family to hear about what happened to Luna and the wall. Lori had nearly thrown another fit over having to deal with more broken things in the house but Lincoln and Luan assured that this was not directly Luna's fault for smashing through the hallway. Plus Leni had been kind enough to use her power to fix both doors, something that she figured out she could do. The eldest sister did drop her anger towards Luna after hearing her younger brother and sister, but was currently sitting down on one of Lisa's lab chairs deep in thought. Leni was right beside her, telling her that Luna was going to be okay now that Lisa was doing her "science-y" stuff.

Speaking of the little scientist, Lincoln alongside Lana and Lola were watching Lisa work at her desk, and every couple of seconds Lisa's eyes would shoot out something. A lime green scanning ray one moment and then a thin yellow laser that beamed right into the hair sample from Luna. She had recovered it from a piece of wood that belonged to their door. Her logic-directed brain analyzed and studied the little strand, even with her brother and sisters looking over her shoulder.

"Find anything yet?" Lincoln asked.

"If I had an answer for the first time you asked me that, I would have given it to you." Lisa responded. "So far, I have not yet determined what caused our elder sister's intense form of locomotion. I will grant you the reason when I have found it."

"I say it's super speed." Lynn stated. Lincoln and Luan turned to face her. "What? It makes sense. You two saw how zoomed straight through the wall, kinda like the Flash!"

"I don't think it's super speed Lynn," Lincoln said, "I saw lightning coming out of her legs before she... did her thing."

"Same here." Luan added.

"Well what else could it be?"

"Eureka!" Lisa shouted quite loudly. The siblings faced the young scientist, who had her fists raised to the air. "Pardon my shouting, but I have achieved discovery!"

"I take it you found what Luna's power is?" Lori asked.

"Indeed my eldest sibling, I have. Take a good look at this hair follicle. Notice how there appears to be a small electrical current coursing around it?" Lisa asked as she held the piece of hair in front of her siblings, who leaned down to take a look, even Luna stood up to stare at it. A tiny lightning arc danced across and the siblings gasped. "This is what Luna's power is. She has the ability to utilize and create intense electrical currents within her body, similar to powerful thunderstorms that occur across the planet."

"But that doesn't explain how she ran so fast!" Luan argued.

"But it _does_ actually," Lisa said back, "Thanks to her power, Luna can generate incredible amounts of energy into her extremities, which is how she unintentionally ran at such extreme speeds. Because of this, and thanks to Lincoln's comic books, I have named this ability _supercharge._ " With Luna's power revealed, that left only Lincoln and Lily to potentially have their powers. In the afterglow of this discovery Luna raised up her arm and allowed her power to flow, causing lightning bolts to shoot out from her skin. The rest of the siblings watched with awed eyes.

"So cool!" Lana gushed while leaning close, then realized that water and electricity don't mix and stepped back to prevent being shocked.

"You're like a living lightning rod, sis." Lynn added.

"Looks like that Thor comic rubbed off on me in more ways that one, little bro." Luna patted Lincoln on the head with a smile on her face. "You helped me out after all. Thanks for that, dude."

Hearing that instantly made Lincoln's day ten times better.

"No problem Luna."

However before they could get further, their good moods were cut short when Lori decided that it was time to talk. Her family was undergoing something literally out of this world and they had to make sure they kept themselves safe and smart.

"Okay guys, while I literally enjoy these nice moments, we have to have a serious talk about what's happening to us." Lori walked to the front of the sibling group to speak to her sisters and brother. "It's obvious that staying in our rooms isn't working. We can't go on like this otherwise we're just gonna knock the house down. We have to learn to keep these things we have down to a bare minimum. I say we all meet up in my room for a Sibling Meeting so we can have some clue on how we can manage that. Agreed?"

"Agreed!" They said back, and headed for Lori's room for the next step to controlling their powers.


End file.
